Evasive manoeuvres with a steering robot

In the pursuit of an objective rating on vehicle stability performance, it is always desirable to reduce disturbances and inconsistencies during experimental evaluations, especially the ones introduced by human drivers. This paper presents the development of a steering robot designed for closed-loop steering tasks during evasive manoeuvres. It describes the controller structure and discusses experimental results, in addition to simulation/vehicle model verifications and theoretical control analysis.     

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.     

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.     

The role of professional associations in shipping

This article is in three parts. The first covers the historical development of qualifying associations. The second covers the particular role of maritime institutions that include The Royal Institution of Naval Architects, The Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology and The Nautical Institute. The third and final section considers the future for maritime professional associations in the context of international shipping.     

A high order linear model for the prediction of internal lee waves at the main sill of the Strait of Gibraltar

A linear theory for the physical fields in the water column under the action of large amplitude internal lee waves at the main sill of the Strait of Gibraltar is developed. The procedure is a combination of the perturbation and normal modes methods in order to study steady resonant conditions. The lowest order linear approach of the methodology resumes the Taylor–Goldstein equation, which can reconstruct the main features of the observed fields but the high order approach gives the finest structure and sometimes the largest contributions. The role of the non-linear terms is investigated up to the second order taking into account the non-linear interactions between modes, leading to an effective reconstruction of the whole water column for the velocity field.     

The market for second-hand ships: Further results on efficiency using cointegration analysis

This paper examines the dynamic behaviour of second-hand prices of tankers and dry-cargo vessels over various time periods, with a view to determining whether or not the markets for such assets are efficient. It extends and re-analyses the results of an earlier study by Hale and Vanags, published in this journal in 1992. Using a more modern method of testing for cointegration, it is shown that both the tanker and dry cargo markets appear to be cointegrated, a fact which would suggest that these markets are inefficient. It is suggested that the existence of cointegration does not necessarily imply market inefficiency, if the factors that create the common trends are themselves stochastic in nature. With this in mind, it is argued that the evidence put forward in this paper is still consistent with market efficiency in the long run.     

Effect of fatigue strain range on properties of high-strength structural steel

Ship hulls are built with stiffened steel plates and experience continuous fatigue load cycles when in service. Mechanical properties of the steel are expected to change due to the application of these cyclic loads. Therefore, the mechanical properties of the material at various levels of fatigue damage need to be understood. This paper presents two test series that were conducted to determine the effect of two different strain ranges (2000 and 3000 micro strains) of fatigue cycles on the mechanical properties of high-strength structural steel. The test results indicate that the cycle-dependent behaviours of the material can cause a slight increase or a significant decrease in the yield strength when compared to its virgin state. However, the ductility of the steel does not change much as the strain cycle increases.     

SLENIUM FROM BEEF IS HIGHLY BIOAVAILABLE AS ASSESSED BY LIVER GLUTATHIONE PEROXIDASE （EC1．11．1．9） ACTIVITY AND TISSUE SELENI

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Valuation of externalities through neo-classical methods by including institutional variables

Externalities are uncompensated influences that are not expressed in a market but that affect the production possibilities or the welfare level of third parties. An example is the noise pollution in airport areas. Although air transport is an important source of economic growth and employment in many countries, the social and environmental problems connected with this sector are rising rapidly. Consequently, airports are becoming a matter of concern to many politicians. On what kind of values should they base their decisions as to further growth or consolidation of the current situation? In this paper we discuss two approaches, one based on mainstream, neo-classical, economics, and one based on institutional approaches, more in particular new institutional economics, which can be seen as a development complementary to the mainstream.