Manpower and employment issues

Overmanning and restrictive labour practices are major causes of low productivity in Indian ports. Proposals are put forward for a programme of reforms to support investment in modern cargo handling systems.     

Basic Analytical Study of Pantograph-catenary System Dynamics

For a high speed electrical rail system, good dynamic performance of the pantograph-catenary system is vital for smooth and continuous current collection. It has been known for many years that to achieve this the head of the pantograph should be made as light as possible and the average stiffness of the catenary should be high. These conclusions, however, have been reached by numerical modelling and operational experience. In this paper the pantograph-catenary system is modelled as a time-varying, single degree-of-freedom system to facilitate an analytical investigation of the system dynamics. Although the model is very simple, it allows physical insight into the dynamic behaviour of the system, and because the excitation is parametric it also allows the stability of the system to be investigated. The finite element method is used to determine the catenary characteristics and Floquet theory is used to analyse the behaviour of the coupled system.     

基于TOPSIS法的航运企业竞争力评价研究

随着经济全球化步伐的加快,航运市场不断夸张,竞争也日趋激烈,航运企业只有正确评价并发展其竞争力,才能持续的发展。本文运用TOPSIS的决策方法对航运企业竞争力的量化指标进行综合评价,具有重要意义。     

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.     

Estimation of origin‐destination matrices for a multimodal public transit network

This paper presents a procedure for the estimation of origin‐destination (O‐D) matrices for a multimodal public transit network. The system consists of a number of favored public transit modes that are obtained from a modal split process in a traditional four‐step transportation model. The demand of each favored mode is assigned to the multimodal network, which is comprised of a set of connected links of different public transit modes. An entropy maximization procedure is proposed to simultaneously estimate the O‐D demand matrices of all favored modes, which are consistent with target data sets such as the boarding counts and line segment flows that are observed directly in the network. A case study of the Hong Kong multimodal transit network is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.     

A traffic flow simulator for short‐term travel time forecasting

This paper presents an off‐line forecasting system for short‐term travel time forecasting. These forecasts are based on the historical traffic count data provided by detectors installed on Annual Traffic Census (ATC) stations in Hong Kong. A traffic flow simulator (TFS) is developed for short‐term travel time forecasting (in terms of offline forecasting), in which the variation of perceived travel time error and the fluctuations of origin‐destination (O‐D) demand are considered explicitly. On the basis of prior O‐D demand and partial updated detector data, the TFS can estimate the link travel times and flows for the whole network together with their variances and covariances. The short‐term travel time forecasting by O‐D pair can also be assessed and the O‐D matrix can be updated simultaneously. The application of the proposed off‐line forecasting system is illustrated by a numerical example in Hong Kong.     

港口腹地划分的两种新方法探讨--以大连国际航运中心为例

引入经济地理学的新理论成果———圈层结构法和点轴法,提出了圈层结构划分法和点轴结构划分法两种新的港口腹地划分方法,并应用这两种新方法对大连国际航运中心港口腹地范围的界定与划分进行实例分析。与以往的行政区划法、经济区域法等港口腹地划分方法相比,这两种方法更加注重对港口原有腹地的细分,更接近于港口腹地的实际状况,进而有利于港口企业的经营发展。     

成也萧何，败也萧何！—浅析“9·11”事件后美国对全球经济的影响

众所周知,从90年代初起,美国经济一直以年均4%左右的速度高速增长着,并奇迹般地持续了近10个年头,成为美国经济史上最长的扩张时期.随着经济持续快速增长,美国经济实力已大大增强.美国已成为名副其实的世界经济"火车头",在自身高速成长的同时,也刺激了全球经济的快速发展.     

现代造船模式下舾装生产设计外场用图纸研究

在软件TRIBON的基础上，以中间产品概念下的全托盘化舾装外场作业任务分解为背景，着重讨论了相应的外场装配图纸形成与表达。对传统舾装作业外场用图纸的表达方式作了一定的扩展。