A new efficient EDI system for container cargo logistics

There have been many efforts to develop a logistics information system in the Korean logistics industry. In spite of these efforts, there are many points which need improvement in the Logistics Information System, of which function is the electronic data communication without added value. This paper aims to describe some of the main problems and the successful factors which are being found in the evolution of the present EDI systems for clearing import/export container cargoes, with special reference to Singapore, Korea, and Japan. Following this, leaving legal issues aside, to suggest workable guidelines for designing a new efficient EDI system for container cargo logistics. As a result of the review, the following successful factors are drawn: (a) the planning, requirement analysis and design of EDI are critical, as it provides a framework for its implementation; (b) as the data of customs clearance are an integral part of a logistics EDI system, the inclusion of customs in the system design is essential; (c) the sharing system of cargo data as the framework of the logistics EDI is efficient for data interchange; (d) the EDI software for the user has been developed and provided by an EDI network operating company; and (e) to facilitate communication between trading partners and the transport sector, it is necessary to adopt a global message standard, such as EDIFACT.     

Occupational Behaviour and Commitment of Seamen

A concern of many environmentalists is that marine pollution conventions are usually slow in coming into force. The reasons for this vary with each convention. Instead of exhaustively examining each convention, this paper suggests a general framework of inquiry which may be used in seeking to ascertain the speed and degree of ratification of any particular convention.     

Protecting Rhode Island's coastal salt ponds: An economic assessment of downzoning

Abstract

In southern Rhode Island, there is growing concern that housing and recreational demands will soon overwhelm the capacity of the coastal salt ponds to absorb wastes, produce seafood, and maintain scenic qualities. As a result, coastal towns have been studying the feasibility of using land controls such as downzoning to protect these coastal amenities. The paper presents an economic analysis of the downzoning program proposed in the town of South Kingstown. Hedonic price and contingent valuation methods are used to value coastal amenities. The estimated net present value of “swimmable” water is shown to be $3.1 million.     

The visual impact of development in coastal zone areas

Abstract

The focus of this paper is theoretical, as well as methodological. It reviews previous studies of visual impact and reports research by the author on people's evaluation of the appropriateness of different man‐made facilities in different coastal‐area contexts and other environments. In this study, subjects were asked to react to slides developed through the use of landscape models and experimental facilities to simulate the appearance of a building in the landscape, while systematically varying the visual relatedness between the two. Specific interest centered on the variable of congruity vs. contrast between the appearance of the building and its landscape context, manipulated by co‐varying the attributes of color and size to create a five‐point scale of contrast/obtrusiveness. The hypothesis was that judgments of appropriateness, and to a lesser extent judgments of liking, would vary inversely with level of contrast. The role of two further variables, the functional significance of the building in its setting, and the character of the setting itself, was also investigated. The author reviews methodological issues involved where subjects respond to visual stimuli for purposes of judging change in visual quality. These methodological issues include: stimulus‐selection and problems of simulation, choice of response measures, and choice of respondents, and the treatment of individual differences. The author calls for development of standardized scales and indices such as “perceptually‐relevant environmental quality indicators.”     

Methodology for the accuracy improvement of FEM beam type T-junctions of buses and coaches structures

The analysis of structures with finite elements methods (FEM) represents a widely spread technique. For large tubular structures similar to the buses and coaches upper structures, beam type elements are utilized due to the fact that these elements provide satisfactory results at relatively reduced computational performances. However the beam type elements have a main disadvantage determined by the fact that the modeled joints have an infinite rigid behavior. This shortcoming determines a stiffer behavior of the modeled structures which translates into an error source for the structural simulations (up to 45%). To overcome this problem, a simple methodology was conceived and an alternative optimized equivalent beam model obtained. The methodology studies the behavioral characteristics of beam modeled T-junctions determining their limitations and comparing them to equivalent T-junctions modeled with shell and volume elements. This way an improved Tjunction has been obtained, in which the behavioral error was reduced to less than 5%. Furthermore the FEM obtained results were validated with real T-junctions.     

CFD Analysis of Ship-to-Ship Hydrodynamic Interaction

A numerical study of ship-to-ship interaction forces is performed using a commercial CFD code, and the results are compared with experimental data and with the results of a panel method analysis. Two ship models have been used in the interaction forces analysis: a tug and a tanker, advancing parallel to each other with different lateral distances and two different values of the fluid depth. Computations are carried out with four different flow models: inviscid and viscous flow with the free surface modeled as a rigid wall and inviscid and viscous flow with the deformable free surface. A fair agreement was obtained with available experimental data and results obtained by panel method. The influence of viscosity in the computations is found to be comparatively weak, while the wavemaking effects may be important, at small magnitude of the horizontal clearance.     

Are we ready to embrace connected and self-driving vehicles? A case study of Texans

While connected, highly automated, and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) will eventually hit the roads, their success and market penetration rates depend largely on public opinions regarding benefits, concerns, and adoption of these technologies. Additionally, the introduction of these technologies is accompanied by uncertainties in their effects on the carsharing market and land use patterns, and raises the need for tolling policies to appease the travel demand induced due to the increased convenience. To these ends, this study surveyed 1088 respondents across Texas to understand their opinions about smart vehicle technologies and related decisions. The key summary statistics indicate that Texans are willing to pay (WTP) $2910, $4607, $7589, and $127 for Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 automation and connectivity, respectively, on average. Moreover, affordability and equipment failure are Texans’ top two concerns regarding AVs. This study also estimates interval regression and ordered probit models to understand the multivariate correlation between explanatory variables, such as demographics, built-environment attributes, travel patterns, and crash histories, and response variables, including willingness to pay for CAV technologies, adoption rates of shared AVs at different pricing points, home location shift decisions, adoption timing of automation technologies, and opinions about various tolling policies. The practically significant relationships indicate that more experienced licensed drivers and older people associate lower WTP values with all new vehicle technologies. Such parameter estimates help not only in forecasting long-term adoption of CAV technologies, but also help transportation planners in understanding the characteristics of regions with high or low future-year CAV adoption levels, and subsequently, develop smart strategies in respective regions.     

How household transportation expenditures have evolved in Canada: a long term perspective

In recent years, increasing recognition of the challenges associated with global climate change and inequity in developed countries have revived researcher’s interest towards analyzing transportation related expenditure of households. The current research contributes to travel behaviour literature by developing an econometric model of household budgetary allocations with a particular focus on transportation expenditure. Towards this end, we employ the public-use micro-data extracted from the Survey of Household Spending (SHS) for the years 1997–2009. The proposed econometric modeling approach is built on the multiple discrete continuous extreme value model (MDCEV) framework. Specifically, in our analysis, the scaled version of the MDCEV model outperformed its other counterparts. Broadly, the model results indicated that a host of household socio-economic and demographic attributes along with the residential location characteristics affect the apportioning of income to various expenditure categories and savings. We also observed a relatively stable transportation spending behaviour over time. Additionally, a policy analysis exercise is conducted where we observed that with increase in health expenses and reduction in savings results in adjustments in all expenditure categories.     

Robust network pricing and system optimization under combined long-term stochasticity and elasticity of travel demand

Network pricing serves as an instrument for congestion management, however, agencies and planners often encounter problems of estimating appropriate toll prices. Tolls are commonly estimated for a single-point deterministic travel demand, which may lead to imperfect policy decisions due to inherent uncertainties in future travel demand. Previous research has addressed the issue of demand uncertainty in the pricing context, but the elastic nature of demand along with its uncertainty has not been explicitly considered. Similarly, interactions between elasticity and uncertainty of demand have not been characterized. This study addresses these gaps and proposes a framework to estimate nearest optimal first-best tolls under long-term stochasticity in elastic demand. We show first that the optimal tolls under the deterministic-elastic and stochastic-elastic demand cases coincide when cost and demand functions are linear, and the set of equilibrium paths is constant. These assumptions are restrictive, so three larger networks are considered numerically, and the subsequent pricing decisions are assessed. The results of the numerical experiments suggest that in many cases, optimal pricing decisions under the combined stochastic-elastic demand scenario resemble those when demand is known exactly. The applications in this study thus suggest that inclusion of demand elasticity offsets the need of considering future demand uncertainties for first-best congestion pricing frameworks.