Energy policies for passenger motor vehicles

This paper assesses the costs and effectiveness of several energy policies for light-duty motor vehicles in the United States, using a version of the National Energy Modeling System. The policies addressed are higher fuel taxes, tighter vehicle efficiency standards, and financial subsidies and penalties for the purchase of high- and low-efficiency vehicles (feebates). I find that tightening fuel-efficiency standards beyond those currently mandated through 2016, or imposing feebates designed to accomplish similar changes, can achieve by 2030 reductions in energy use by all light-duty passenger vehicles of 7.1–8.4%. A stronger feebate policy has somewhat greater effects, but at a significantly higher unit cost. High fuel taxes, on the order of $2.00 per gallon (2007$), have somewhat greater effects, arguably more favorable cost-effectiveness ratios, and produce their effects much more quickly because they affect the usage rate of both new and used vehicles. Policy costs vary greatly with assumptions about the reason for the apparent myopia commonly observed in consumer demand for fuel efficiency, and with the inclusion or exclusion of ancillary costs of congestion, local air pollution, and accidents.     

An Epsilon Bargaining Game-Theoretic Formulation Between Carrier and Container Terminal Operators for Servicing Vessels During Unloading Operations

Due to globalization trends and the increasing competition between ports, the maritime policy for container shipments has witnessed a change in operations that resulted in less reliance on direct freight flows and higher transshipment operations. Motivated to investigate a soft intelligent decision-making approach using game theory in the context of servicing vessels during unloading operations in transshipment, we propose an epsilon bargaining approach between the carrier and the container terminal operator (CTO). The objective of the game is to maximize the carrier service level while minimizing operation costs for the CTO. The players' utilities, which depend on the service level and the fees for the carrier, as well as the revenues generated and the cost incurred for the CTO, are uniquely formulated and evaluated in a bargaining scenario using an ordinal ranking approach. The negotiation process is further improved between the two players based on our proposed Epsilon Bargaining Equilibrium, which to the best of our knowledge has not been used in maritime transportation problems. Results from a risk aversion case illustrate the value of the soft computing mathematical model that we formulated and motivate follow-up research.     

Rural highway route corridor selection

The selection of a rural highway corridor between designated termini is approached as the simultaneous selection of line and grade of a particular alignment in the corridor. The selection is facilitated by the successive application of linear programming and shortest path techniques. A model is presented in which the inputs are terrain elevations, design constraints on overall grade, terminal grades and elevations, and restricted areas of passage. The output consists of a user‐specified number of alternative corridors, selected on the basis of minimum sum of the deviations of their representative profiles from the original ground. The model is applicable to situations where route selection is dominated by construction considerations. A hypothetical example and an actual application demonstrate the utility of the methodology.     

Pursuing maritime education: an empirical study of students’ profiles,motivations and expectations

This study reveals the profiles, motivations, and expectations of students pursuing undergraduate maritime programmes. Although a number of tertiary institutions offer maritime programmes, the characteristics and structures of the demands for such programmes remain under-researched. This paper illustrates and discusses the results of a survey completed by students pursuing undergraduate programmes in maritime business and management at three universities in Asia and Europe, and compares them with the findings of a database examining similar issues towards postgraduate students within the same institutions. Research highlights include the tendency of undergraduate students to combine studies and work, considering real-world experiences as a vital contributor to career prospects. Shipping (notably tankers, dry bulks and containers) stands out as the ideal professional paths within the maritime industries. Another key finding is that the current marketing strategies of the institutions are rather irrelevant. This paper provides a solid foundation for understanding the profile students pursuing maritime programmes and contributes to the effective planning and management of maritime programmes, thus to the overall professional quality of the maritime industries.     

Experimental study of the flow induced by a vehicle fan and the effect of engine blockage in a simplified model

Fans are often tested without downstream blockage and, thus, the performance is considerably different when the fan is mounted in a vehicle as part of a cooling system and where high blockage effect is present downstream. The aim of the present work is to analyze by laser Doppler velocimetry LDV measurements the topology of the flow induced by a fan incorporated in a simplified underhood model reproducing engine blockage and to study the blockage effect of the engine positioning on the flow induced by the fan. The distance between the fan and the engine block affects the mean flow axial velocity U. The vertical velocity component W is greatly influenced by the variation of the distance between the fan and the engine block, both in magnitude and topology.     

Hydrological changes in the Mediterranean Sea in relation to changes in the freshwater budget: A numerical modelling study

The response of the Mediterranean Sea and the various sub-basins to changes in the freshwater budget are investigated in a process-oriented study, using the POM model. The model is first integrated using values of the Nile and Ebro rivers runoff, as well as of the Dardanelles freshwater input, typical of the fifties. The model reaches a steady state representative of that existing in the Mediterranean prior to the major damming period after 90 years of integration. Then the model is integrated using the reduced river runoff values typical of the after-damming period. The additional impact of decadal scale trends in the precipitation rate as well as of intense surface cooling periods/events on the thermohaline circulation during the last 40 years were also examined. The model results show that the dramatic reduction of the Nile freshwater input and to a lesser extent the reduction of the freshwater input from the Dardanelles Straits induced a large increase in the sea surface salinity in the Aegean and Levantine basins in the late sixties/early seventies, in agreement with observations. Furthermore, the Ebro runoff reduction during the same period further enhanced the salinity increase in the Levantine basin as higher salinity surface waters of the western basin reached the eastern basin via the Atlantic Water circulation. This saltier surface layer in the vicinity of the Rhodes Gyre favoured the preconditioning for the formation of the Levantine Intermediate Water, resulting in about 40% increase of its formation rate. This in turn resulted in the production of saltier and larger amounts of deep waters in the various deep-water formation sites. According to the model, the river damming and decreased precipitation since the eighties explain about 95% of the observed salinity increase in the Western Mediterranean Deep Water over the last 40 years. The major contributor to this increase was proved to be the Nile damming. The salt increase in the surface layer is proved to be insufficient to produce alone the two climatic transient events in the deep waters of the Eastern Mediterranean in the late sixties and early nineties, respectively. Surface cooling was found to be important, resulting in large deep water formation and thus allowing the propagation of the increased surface salinity signal to the deep layers. However, model results demonstrate that the river damming played an important role in the long-term salt preconditioning of the surface/intermediate layers, thus contributing in triggering the two events.     

Marine engineers’ training: Educational assessment for an engine room simulator

Qualitative upgrading of the educational process at university level marine education depends largely on the instructive value of the trainers’ educational software. Marine education software has developed out of a certain initial implementation in an equivalent manner to which the programs of practice and training have been applied in cases of simulations and programming environments. In most cases, educational software categories have developed without taking into consideration any special pedagogical theory.