Potential and benefits of AIS to Ships and Maritime Administrations

The Universal Automatic Identification System (AIS) provides a huge variety of potential applications and services which exceed the well known ship-to-ship data exchange. The purpose of this paper is to address the most important AIS services, in particular the AIS position report and the AIS safety-related and binary messages (“AIS telegrams”). The main issue is the impact of this new technology on the on-board use of AIS in collision avoidance (and its limitations) as well as the impact on shore-based services such as Vessel Traffic Service (VTS), port management and the need of an effective AIS network.     

Accessing the global seafaring labour market

As a global labour market exists for international shipping, a challenging issue facing this industry is to get access to reliable, accurate and timely information of seafarers’ demand and supply. Related to the deregulation environment and great variety in the availability and quality of relevant information, an enquiry into the global seafaring labour market is more complex than a national labour force survey. To cope with the challenge, a novel approach has been developed by the Seafarers International Research Centre (SIRC) at Cardiff University. Viewing capital (ship), labour (seafarers) and services (cargo or passengers) as interconnected and interwoven to each other, it collects and analyses crew lists from main ports world-wide, resulting in the creation of the first global seafarers database. The purpose of this paper is explain its methodological principles, and to illustrate its application potential. Taking the cruise sector as an example, research findings and methodological implications are highlighted.     

Maritime search and rescue: Benefit or burden for society?

Just twenty five years have passed since the International Maritime Organization (IMO) provided the legal and internationally harmonized framework for maritime search and rescue operations. While a number of nations only had to adapt their well-established national services it took great efforts for other nations to develop agencies able to fulfil or outstrip minimum requirements. However, the majority of nations (well aware of the humanitarian nature of that task) have been afraid to cope with this challenge and the related financial burdens since the benefits to local, regional, or even national economies are not always clear to the relevant national administrating authorities.     

The choice of speed and clearance for RAS on 3D method

In this paper, a 3D source distribution technique is used to calculate the coupled motions between two ships which advance in the wave with the same speed. The numerical results of coupled motions for a frigate and a supply ship have a good agreement with the experimental results. Based on the 3D coupled motions of two ships, a spectral analysis is employed to clearly observe the effect of speed, clearance and wave heading on the significant relative motion amplitude (SRMA) of two ships.The method presented in this paper will be helpful to select suitable clearance, speed and wave heading for underway replenishment at sea(RAS).     

明代嘉靖年间的宁波港

宁波之名,始自明代,源自海上.明太祖朱元璋取"海定则波宁"之义,赐名宁波,[1]一直沿用至今.故宁波与海洋的渊源可谓深矣.宁波这一中国东南的海上门户,在唐代称明州.唐宋以来,成为长江下游重要的对外贸易港口,在海上丝绸之路上有着重要地位和作用.南宋<乾道四明图经>卷1<分野>中记载:"南则闽广,东则倭人,北则高句丽,商舶往来,物货丰衍".作为海外交通的重要口岸,宁波在海上贸易中的特殊地位和作用,在明初业已显示出来,由于东望日本的地理位置,宁波成为明初设立掌管海外贸易事务的三个市舶提举司所在地之一,主要贸易对象是日本.明中叶以后,商品货币经济发展迅速,社会内部涌动变革的潜流,私人海上贸易蓬勃兴起,继之西方葡萄牙人扩张东来,在世界格局急遽变动之中,嘉靖年间海上风云变幻,在新的贸易体系酝酿中,宁波港也出现了新的特点,成为海上丝绸之路繁盛的联结点,凸显出作为国际贸易港的重要作用.     

虹膜识别技术的应用与发展

虹膜识别技术是一种生物特征识别技术,本文在分析其研究现状、识别流程的基础上,简单的介绍了虹膜图像的采集、虹膜定位、归一化与增强、虹膜编码、比较与判决等主要内容。     

Assessing asymmetric response effect of behavioral intention to service quality in an integrated psychological decision-making process model of intercity bus passengers: a case of Taiwan

This study introduces the concept of loss aversion to consumer behavioral intention at the personal psychological level to develop an integrative structural equation model for analyzing traveler psychological decision making. In this model, the relationship between behavioral intention and service quality is a non-smooth function based on the theory of loss aversion. The expectation service quality in the SERVQUAL model proposed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (PZB) serves as a reference point. This model can be applied to analyze the effect of non-smooth response of behavioral intention to service quality in a traveler psychological decision-making process model. Intercity travel among cities in Taiwan is used as an empirical example. Data were gathered in cities in Taiwan via a questionnaire survey, and the model was tested using path analysis performed by LISREL. The empirical result shows that all causal relationships are statistically significant. Service quality loss influences repurchase intention more than does Service quality gain. Finally, this study concludes by discussing managerial implications and suggesting directions for future research.

Urban form,travel time,and cost relationships with tour complexity and mode choice

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate how relative associations between travel time, costs, and land use patterns where people live and work impact modal choice and trip chaining patterns in the Central Puget Sound (Seattle) region. By using a tour-based modeling framework and highly detailed land use and travel data, this study attempts to add detail on the specific land use changes necessary to address different types of travel, and to develop a comparative framework by which the relative impact of travel time and urban form changes can be assessed. A discrete choice modeling framework adjusted for demographic factors and assessed the relative effect of travel time, costs, and urban form on mode choice and trip chaining characteristics for the three tour types. The tour based modeling approach increased the ability to understand the relative contribution of urban form, time, and costs in explaining mode choice and tour complexity for home and work related travel. Urban form at residential and employment locations, and travel time and cost were significant predictors of travel choice. Travel time was the strongest predictor of mode choice while urban form the strongest predictor of the number of stops within a tour. Results show that reductions in highway travel time are associated with less transit use and walking. Land use patterns where respondents work predicted mode choice for mid day and journey to work travel.

The impact of high-speed technology on railway demand

This paper estimates a passenger railway demand function to analyse effects arising from the introduction and use of high-speed technologies. The paper reports estimates of demand elasticities with respect to price, income, quality of service and a range of exogenous characteristics. The results show that travel time savings from conventional high-speed technology have a larger impact on passenger demand than tilting train technology. The introduction of conventional high-speed technology is associated with an 8% increase in passenger railway demand. Increasing the use of either type of high-speed technology appears to induce small positive effects on demand beyond those obtained from usual traffic density increases on non-high-speed existing technology.