Market structures in coastal shipping: what to expect in Canada following the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement with the European Union?

After several years of negotiation between Canada and the European Union, the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) was ratified in early 2017. The regime set out by the Canadian Coasting Trade Act that reserves shipments of cargo between Canadian ports to Canadian vessels remains mostly untouched under CETA. Minor, yet potentially significant, changes to the regime are introduced by the trade agreement. Provisions are made to liberalize the repositioning of empty containers within Canada. The liberalization of public markets now allows European firms to compete in the Canadian dredging market. Finally, EU vessels can undertake some transshipment activity in Canada but this is limited to international cargo on the specific Montreal-Halifax route. The paper attempts to highlight some possible CETA’s consequences for domestic Canadian shipping markets. It uses industrial economics analytical tools drawn from a Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) paradigm. From a literature review, it reconstructs different cases of deregulation that occurred internationally. The observed transformations are then characterized in terms of the SCP model. The paper identifies some common impacts which occurred in different transportation industries after a deregulation process. Using these findings, it concludes by discussing potential impacts for domestic shipping markets in Canada.     

Assessment of factors associated with travel time reliability and prediction: an empirical analysis using probabilistic reasoning approach

Significant efforts have been made in modeling a travel time distribution and establishing measures of travel time reliability (TTR). However, the literature on evaluating the factors affecting TTR is not well established. Accordingly, this paper presents an empirical analysis to determine potential factors that are associated with TTR. This study mainly applies the Bayesian Networks model to assess the probabilistic association between road geometry, traffic data, and TTR. The results from this model reveal that land use characteristics, intersection factors, and posted speed limits are directly associated with TTR. Evaluating the strength of the association between TTR and the directly related variables, the log odds ratio analysis indicates that the land use factor has the highest impact (0.83) followed by the intersection factor (0.57). The findings from this study can provide valuable resources to planners and traffic operators in their decision-making to improve TTR with quantitative evidence.     

100%液态氟硅橡胶:一种耐燃油和机油的液态硅橡胶

氟硅橡胶(FVMQs)由于其独特的物性而使其需求量并未得到更大的增长.氟硅橡胶(FSRs)用于制造接触发动机燃料/汽车燃料.溶剂和机油的汽车产品,其用量正在不断增长.随着更多的生产商使用FSRs来生产产品,加工工艺的优化与零件的生产效率日益变得重要,但是这些问题却仍是难以解决的.     

Surface patterns of zooplankton spatial variability detected by high frequency sampling in the NW Mediterranean. Role of density fronts

High frequency sampling was performed in daylight hours along a 35 km transect in the Ligurian Sea to investigate the upper layer zooplankton distribution during the spring phytoplankton bloom. The results show detailed spatial structure and biomass of key zooplankton functional groups, copepods, salps and krill larvae, within the different water masses characterizing this region. Although observed values of total copepod biomass distribution were rather constant along the transect, species-specific patterns were observed in the copepod spatial distribution. The larger species Calanus helgolandicus, as well as Centropages typicus, Oithona spp., and Oncaea spp., were associated with the frontal zone. However, Acartia spp. had a scattered distribution, and Clausocalanus/Paracalanus did not have a clear pattern. In addition, krill larvae were concentrated in the frontal area and salps had a scattered pattern. The cross-shore zooplankton distribution appeared strongly influenced by both the Northern Ligurian current governing inshore waters, which acts as a major flushing forcing, and the Ligurian front, which governs offshore waters and may act as retention area for zooplankton.     

The place of the ISPS Code in the legal international regime

The adoption of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code) is the latest response of the international shipping community to the increasing threat posed by acts of terrorism at sea. The ACHILLE LAURO incident of 1985 showed that the traditional law against piracy was not adequate to deal with new types of unlawful acts against international shipping, especially those involving acts of terrorism. The 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA Convention) and the technical and administrative measures adopted by the Maritime Safety Committee of IMO in 1986 and 1996 attempted to develop a broader regime to deal with unlawful acts against international shipping.However, the events of September 11, 2001 showed that additional measures were still needed to prevent terrorist attacks against ships.     

Supply and demand for the Eastern Canadian Arctic Sealift

The annual sealift of cargo to the Canadian Arctic has long been an essential part of the livelihood of Inuit communities. Over the past two decades, many structural changes were brought to this service and the demand has grown substantially. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of these changes by analysing demand and supply for Eastern Canadian Arctic sealift services. This analysis is based on Canadian Coast Guard vessel movement data and Statistics Canada port traffic data. It reveals that between 1987 and 2010, continuous and extreme variations in demand made it quite difficult for ship operators to adjust carrying capacity and optimise productivity. Yet, the recent industrial and population growth in the region has enabled them to reach significant gains in fleet utilisation levels.     

Rail vehicles,environment, safety and security

This paper starts with a discussion on typical vehicles. The concepts and the usual practice for rail wagon design, both freight and passengers are presented. A discussion on rail and the environment comes next followed by Truck-Trains. Accident theories, metaphors and investigation methods are widely discussed; Hazard – Barrier – Target Model, Swiss Cheese Model, Bow-Tie Model, Fault Tree Analysis and Event Tree Analysis are explained. This paper concludes with a technical discussion on safety and security of rail vehicles, standards for safety and measures against terrorist attacks.     

Actors and Their Representations in Shipping Policy: Developing the European Maritime Safety Agency

This paper discusses the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). Through a chronological reconstruction, the study looks at the events that lead to the official birth of the Agency in 2003 and how it developed to its current state. The conceptual framework draws from cognitive policy analysis, a French political science perspective related to new institutionalisms. This approach emphasizes the role of the actors' own representations of their sector and the ways they fit within the socioeconomic system as a whole. This highlights the evolution of the stakeholders' positions and influence throughout the development process. Findings suggest that although considerable discrepancies between European representatives and those of the shipping industry were present in the context leading to EMSA's creation, the Agency has now established a working consensus confirming a greater implication of European authorities in the regulation of international shipping. The work also suggests that a greater attention to plays of power among stakeholders and how they translate in their representations could be pertinent to strengthen research in shipping policy.     

Why do paratransit operators resist participation in bus rapid transit? Case evidence from Bogota,Mexico City,Johannesburg and Lagos

ABSTRACT

Public transport in cities of the Global South is mainly provided by paratransit operators who self-regulate their services in the absence of adequate formal transport supply and due to weak or no formal regulatory framework and enforcement. Paratransit operators compete with each other for passengers as every passenger translates into profit. Governments in the Global South have sought to reform public transport services through Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to regulate and ensure efficiency, address the problems of drivers competition and negative externalities associated with paratransit operations. Paratransit operators have been considered as one of the barriers to public transport reforms such as BRT without much consideration for their style of operations. This neglect has contributed to their resistance and low interest in participating in BRT and has even led to opposition. Consequently, non-consideration of incumbent operators in the implementation of transit reforms has been one important reason for delay or failure in their introduction. In this study, we identify reasons why paratransit operators resist and show low interest in BRT even in situations where public institutions have opted not to replace them but rather invite them to participate in the reforms. The basis is a case study analysis of four cities with different characteristics and different BRT implementation strategies where paratransit operators showed resistance and low interest to participate. We identify (1) loss of autonomy, flexibility and established practices/routines, (2) financial and economic risk avoidance and (3) lack of trust in governments who initiate reforms as a basis for their resistance and low interest. These findings are theoretically substantiated by organisational management and social psychology concepts that explain resistance to change. Understanding and recognising these reasons may help planners in designing more appropriate strategies for paratransit reforms.     

Journey to work and job search characteristics of the urban poor

Gender differences in work trip and job search patterns have received several analytical attention in recent years. A consistent finding in the literature is that women work closer to home than men because of their lower income, greater household responsibilities, and heavier reliance on public transit. While these findings pervade the literature, there has been little analysis into the extent to which they hold in the exclusive case of the urban poor. Can poor women afford to choose between jobs on the basis of journey to work considerations, any more than poor men? Using a survey data from Edmonton, this study examines the gender differences in commuting and job search patterns of the urban poor. The findings suggest that, even among the low income population, women have shorter work trips and greater preference for part-time jobs than men because of their child care and household responsibilities. More women than men did not have enough time for their job search activities; and fewer women than men were prepared to accept job offers in all parts of the study area due to their household responsibilities. The results suggest that while males' employment problems are tied primarily to the working of the labour market, through inadequate skills and lack of good-paying jobs, females' employment problems are more explicable in terms of their role as mothers and homemakers.