Regulation of the informal transport sector in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil: welfare impacts and policy analysis

In Brazil, the explosion of informal transport activity during the past decade has had profound effects on formal public transport systems and is a source of great controversy in the urban transportation sector. A variety of policies have been proposed to manage the growth of the sector. This study seeks to understand how proposed policies will impact the users of these systems. A corridor in Rio de Janeiro with substantial informal activity was used as a case study. Measures of welfare changes in a discrete choice framework were used to estimate proposed policies’ impacts on users. Eleven candidate policies were evaluated, ranging from the eradication of the informal modes and investment in formal modes, to the legalization of the informal modes. Benefits were compared with costs and the distribution of benefits across income classes was explored. Net benefits from some policies were found to be substantial. Legalizing the informal sector was found to benefit users slightly but further investments in the sector are probably inefficient. Users benefited most from improvements in formal mass transit modes, at roughly 100–200 dollars per commuter per year. Finally, policies to foster a competitive environment for the delivery of both informal and formal services were shown to benefit users about 100 dollars per commuter per year. Together, the regulation of the informal sector and investments in the formal sector serve to reinforce the movement towards competitive concessions for services and help reduce the impacts of cartelization and costly in-road competition.

倾角仪在桥梁挠度测量中的应用

文章介绍利用倾角仪进行桥梁挠度测量的新方法,分析了其测量的基本原理,并通过工程实例应用,验证了倾角仪能大大提高测量效率,避免传统测量方法的不足,具有广阔的工程应用前景。     

船舶减摇方式介绍及发展趋势

针对船舶的减摇问题,综述了船舶减摇的几种方法,分析了船舶主要减摇装置舭龙骨、减摇鳍、减摇水舱、减摇舵的优缺点,指出了存在的技术难题,并展望了有价值的研究方向。     

针对儿童座椅拉拽失效的车身结构改进

在乘用车前期设计阶段,为让儿童保护的安全性能得到控制和优化,以某乘用车根据国家安全法规要求进行儿童座椅拉拽台架试验时,ISOFIX固定装置出现焊点从车身上拉脱失效为例,基于焊点热影响区损伤的焊点失效准则和钣金断裂失效准则,运用有限元分析对其进行虚拟评估和结构改进,有限元分析与试验结果吻合良好.改进结构通过了儿童座椅拉拽...     

焊装车间机器人的节拍分析及优化设计

为了实现焊装车间降本增效的目标,对焊装车间自动生产线上机器人的生产节拍进行优化.通过分析机器人的工作时序逻辑,查找机器人不合理的工作时序,进而分析机器人的底层程序,修改程序上的问题,优化工作时序,消除机器人工作时序逻辑不合理产生的等待浪费,提升生产线的生产节拍,从而提高车间的生产效率,最终实现降本增效的目标.     

扶壁码头船撞损坏鉴定与修复方案

某扶壁码头被船碰撞后损坏严重。在对码头水下部位进行探摸以及对水上部位调查与检测的基础上,分类评价码头各受损部位的损坏程度,提出码头主体结构修复方案,结果可作为码头修复和事故赔偿的依据。     

水泥混凝土路面填缝材料的抗疲劳老化性能研究

采用热压冷拉循环试验模拟填缝材料在水泥混凝土路面上的应用状况,以测试填缝材料的抗疲劳老化性能。通过对比试验研究,得出以硅氧键为主链的有机硅填缝材料的抗疲劳老化性能优异,经热压冷拉后,粘结强度保持在95%以上,远高于国内目前普遍使用的聚氨酯、焦油型和芳油型填缝胶。此外还得到了一个最佳填缝工艺条件:深-宽比为2∶1。     

Fault diagnosis for singular stochastic systems

This paper studies the fault diagnosis of singular stochastic systems. The probability distribution of output is measured by probability density functions (PDFs), which are modeled by a square root B-spline expansion. An adaptive nonlinear observer is proposed to estimate the size of the fault occurring in systems. Furthermore, the linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach is applied to establish sufficient conditions for the existence of the observer. Finally, the simulation results are given to indicate the method for diagnosing the fault.     

Vocational and academic approaches to maritime education and training (MET): Trends,challenges and opportunities

Traditional seafarer training has always focused on the acquisition and use of practical skills. The prevailing view is that, while this approach addresses a degree of cognitive skills, it focuses on and gives much more emphasis to the acquisition of hands-on practical skills for the performance of specific tasks. On the other hand, academic education has been seen to be much more focused on the development of in-depth analytical and critical thinking skills; cognitive skills that are less reliant on hands-on task-oriented training, but stress critical reading and discussion. The global trend in maritime education and training is increasingly to link an essentially vocational education that provides specific and restricted competence outcomes with more general or deeper academic components leading to an academic qualification. This trend has led to some dilemmas for curriculum development, for training legislation in a global industry, and for achieving desired learning outcomes in a professional setting (in the shipping industry). This paper discusses some of the challenges arising from this trend and the opportunities the trend offers.