Emerging organizational values in shipping: Part 4. Decentralization—the redefinition of authority in shipping company organization

Decentralization is a major theme of organizational change in shipping. It is often seen as ‘putting power back aboard ship’. However, the authors argue that this view is too simple. Decentralization poses fundamental questions about the entire management structure of the shipping company. The redistribution of authority necessary for decentralization is discussed in terms of the company organization structure.     

Workshop 3A: Governance,contracting, ownership and competition issues in public transport: Looking up not down

Workshop 3A focussed on matters of institutional design that seem likely to improve public transport outcomes. It started by defining high level outcome goals, as measures of ultimate public transport success, and then identified the major societal issues that public transport systems can help to resolve. These issues were separately defined for Southern African and western settings. The importance of taking an integrated approach to transport, particularly land use/transport integration, was seen as fundamental to goal achievement. Workshop papers provided many and varied examples of this importance, ranging from PPPs for major public transport projects to system design issues and contracting out of services. The Workshop included detailed discussion on paratransit development in Southern Africa, where relationship management is proving to be critical, in-line with much previous Thredbo discussion about the important role of trusting partnerships. Parallels and contrasts were drawn with paratransit in western settings. Competition in passenger rail was also a focus, with some questioning of the benefits of franchising. Discussion concluded by proposing recommendations for policy and research and suggesting agenda items for future Thredbo Conferences.     

Applications of intuitionistic fuzzy set aggregation operators in transport multi-factor project evaluation

Abstract

An intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) is a generalisation of a fuzzy set characterised by a truth membership function and a false membership function. The former is a lower bound on the grade of membership of the evidence in favour of a particular element belonging to the set and the latter is a lower bound on the negation of that element belonging to the set derived from evidence against that element belonging to the set. A similar concept is a vague set, though vague sets have been shown to be identical to IFSs. In the context of project evaluation, an IFS may be used to represent the degree to which a project satisfies a criterion and the degree to which it does not. Aggregation of such IFSs has been considered in recent years to identify a best project in terms of several criteria or factors. A particular desirable way to aggregate IFS is in terms of an ordered weighted average (OWA) which can be expressed in different forms such as arithmetic and geometric. In an OWA operator, weights are applied to the position of an element in the aggregation. In addition, hybrid OWA operators may be developed to not only weight the position of elements in the aggregation but the element itself. An example is given relating to the Kuranda Range Road upgrade (Queensland, Australia) which is limited by grade, poor overtaking opportunities, poor horizontal alignment and other constraints and the road is expected to become increasingly congested over the next few years. A more flexible multi-factor decision method is used to identify a ‘best’ project from a set of four alternative projects.     

Capabilities and Radicalism: Engineering Accessibility in the 21st century

Abstract

Engineering bridges the gap between, on the one hand, that mix of philosophy and politics that we call policy and, on the other, the physical implementation of the means to put policy into practice. Starting with a brief outline of the nature of accessibility, why it is important and how in some cases a person might be disabled by a lack of accessibility, this article – based on the author's Inaugural Lecture given at University College London in February 2005 – turns to consider how a person's needs challenge their capabilities (i.e. what they can do) and considers a radical approach to understanding people's capabilities in the implementation process. Next, the formation of policy intentions in order to permit, encourage and implement the engineering of appropriate solutions is discussed and conclusions drawn about how this affects work in the transport domain. Perhaps we need to look at the world in a different way before we can make it a better place.     

罐车牵引梁失效容限分析全尺寸验证试验

介绍了用铁道车辆的全尺寸多轴液压伺服台－－模拟加载器，以及建立在裂纹分析方法基础上的失效容限分析，并以北美铁路摧车工业所承担的罐车牵引梁研究项目为例，采用模拟加载器来验证失效容限分析。     

只是开始——汉密尔顿专访

比赛才刚刚开始，最多也是热身结束开始了真正的较量。所以一时的失利大可不必听风就是雨，我的赛车是什么水平自己心里最清楚了。     

Influence of hydrography on phytoplankton distribution in the Amundsen and Ross Seas, Antarctica

The phytoplankton of the Ross Sea have been intensively studied, in contrast to that of the Amundsen Sea. This study focused on understanding the environmental variables that influence the spatial patterns of assemblages during late summer, 2007, and late spring-early summer, 2008 in the Amundsen and Ross Seas. Blooms of the prymnesiophyte Phaeocystis antarctica, and the silicoflagellate Dictyocha speculum occurred in the southwestern to eastern parts of the Ross Sea, respectively, whereas diatoms dominated in southeastern Ross and the Amundsen Sea. Shallow mixed layers supported the growth of diatoms, but were not the only factor required for diatom bloom development. Modified Circumpolar Deep Water intruded into the subsurface waters (< 200 m) in the southwestern Ross Sea during February 2007, and possibly favored the formation of P. antarctica blooms. Photosynthetic quantum yield data suggest that blooms from the southwestern Ross Sea were approaching stress during January 2008, likely due to iron limitation, in contrast to blooms close to the ice edge in the Amundsen Sea, where iron may be more available to the phytoplankton. A detailed comparison between the Amundsen and Ross Seas may allow a greater understanding of the environmental-induced impacts on phytoplankton distribution and regional biogeochemical cycles.