The Nigerian shipping industry and indigenous shipping companies

The shipping industry in Nigeria since the early 1990s has been experiencing a continuous disastrous downturn. Nigerian shipping companies' participation in international shipping has continued to be very limited. Their presence and impact is hardly felt in the world's shipping industry. Both the national carriers (that is shipping companies with national carrier status) and other indigenous private shipping companies have vessel as well as management problems. These problems have led to the poor performance of the Nigerian shipping industry for over a decade now. The carriers in the industry are not attaining for the country the gains that are supposed to emanate from shipping. This paper points out the importance of shipping to a nation, identifies the problems the country's shipping companies are facing and proffers solutions that include merging of the companies to have strong financial standing and a competitive edge.     

论二阶Euler—Lagrange方程的形式和结构

本文讨论m个变元情形,得到结论:m≥2时,二阶方程为Euler-Lagrange方程的充要条件是它为Monge-Ampere方程,其系数满足某些条件。     

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.     

Effects of information in road transport networks with recurrent congestion

This paper aims to gain more insight into the implications of information provision to drivers on the performance of road transport networks with recurrent congestion. For this purpose, a simulation program consisting of three components has been written. The first component is the traffic simulation model, the second component is the information provision mechanism, and the third component monitors the behavioural decision-making process of the drivers, which is modelled using a utility-based satisficing principle. Three types of information provision mechanisms will be considered: information based upon own-experience, after-trip information and real-time en route information. The findings in this paper, obtained in a hypothetical context, underline the important relationship betweenoverreaction, thelevel of market penetration and thequality of the information. High quality information allows a high level of market penetration, while low quality information, even when provided at low levels of market penetration, induces overreaction. Furthermore, real-time en route information is in particular beneficial during the process leading to a steady state; it reduces the variance in travel time considerably. The paper concludes with a discussion on the market potential of motorist information systems when commercially marketed.     

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

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On the axial force induced on a duct by a propulsor

The axial force induced on a duct (duct thrust) which surrounds a propulsor is, by means of an energy conservation argument, expressed in terms of the thrust and power of the propulsor and the kinetic energy losses per unit of time of the propulsor and the duct. Emphasis is put on the linear theory of an axisymmetric ducted actuator disk, where it is shown that the work done by the duct thrust is equal to the extra work done by the actuator disk when it is surrounded by the duct. This simplified model gives more insight into the interaction between the propeller and the duct and on the limits of linearization.     

Effect of capacity concentration on highway corridor performance

This paper investigates, through use of analytical models, the effects of capacity concentration on highway corridor performance. It concludes that when highways operate at a fixed total capacity, decreasing the highway spacing can increase the average travel time because highways will become more congested. When highways operate below capacity, decreasing the spacing is usually beneficial as it tends to reduce trip length when accessing highways, and allows a greater percentage of travel to be completed on highways instead of arterials.     

Air pollution from ships: Recent developments

All developments on air pollution by ships are fairly recent. Annex VI of the international Marpol-convention, regulating the emissions of CFCs, Halons, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from cargoes, emissions from incinerators and exhaust gas emissions from engines (NO_x and SO_x) entered into force in May 2005. The International Maritime Organization is currently discussing an upgrade of the air pollution issues covered by Annex VI and some that are not in Annex VI, such as greenhouse gas emissions. CO₂ is the most important greenhouse gas emitted by ship. Fuel consumption by the world merchant fleet is expected to grow to between 250–300 million tons per year with corresponding CO₂ emissions of 800–960 million tons per year. In Western Europe land based measures have reduced sulphur emissions substantially, leaving shipping as an important remaining source of these emissions. Average sulphur content of heavy fuel oils is 3%, with a limit of 4.5% imposed by Annex VI. Both the Baltic- and the North Sea have the status of SO_x emission control area, limiting sulphur content to 1.5%.