Examining the influence of firm performance on business risk-taking and the mediation effect of scale of operations in the container terminal industry

Container shipping and its related service sectors help accelerate globalization of the world economy. This industry has been experiencing rapid growth, prompting container terminal operators to increase their handling capacity in response. Providing container terminal services requires substantial capital investment in physical assets such as cargo handling facilities and information systems. On the other hand, operating container terminals is a long-term investment that typically spans several business cycles. Hence prudent asset management using appropriate tools is critical for container terminal operators to sustain their businesses. Generally, due to risk-adverseness, investors are unwilling to take more risk in their investment unless they can reap a higher return. Contrary to this argument, this study finds no direct influence of better firm performance as a proxy of higher return on business risk-taking by container terminal operators. Instead, scale of operations is positively associated with business risk-taking, suggesting that container terminal operators with a larger scale of operations are willing to take more business risk.     

Dynamic Estimation of Road Bank Angle

Road bank angles have a direct influence on vehicle dynamics and lateral acceleration measurement. A vehicle stability control system that knows road bank angle has an advantageous capability in achieving desired control sensitivities for maneuvers on ice and snow, among all surfaces, while avoiding false/nuisance activation on a banked road. Since neither lateral velocity nor road bank angle are directly measurable in current vehicle systems due to economical reasons, the major challenge is to differentiate the bias induced by road bank disturbances from actual effect of vehicle lateral dynamics in current measurements. This paper proposes a method of road bank estimation and provides theoretical background for the decoupling effort of lateral dynamics and road disturbances involved in bank estimation.     

Information needs of the continuing urban transportation planning process

Urban transportation is identified as a functional element in the broader context of urban facilities and services. From this point of view, the relative merits of separate information systems for transportation planning and general urban planning, as contrasted to unified systems for all urban management functions, are discussed. The overriding need to make the most effective use of urban resources argues strongly for the unification of urban information systems to the greatest possible extent consistent with the special data requirements of various functional programs. The need to identify and correlate data items for very small areal units and to keep current records of the constantly shifting patterns of social and economic activities in urban areas present difficult, but not insurmountable technical problems. However, the most serious barrier to the development and implementation of comprehensive urban information systems is concluded to be institutional, rather than technical, in nature.     

Elasticities for taxicab fares and service availability

This study utilizes a unique dataset from New York City to examine the effects of taxi fare increases on trip demand and the availability of taxi service. The elasticity of trip demand with respect to fares is estimated to be –0.22; the elasticity of service availability with respect to the taxi fare is 0.28; and the elasticity of service availability with respect to total supply of service is near 1.0. These results have important implications for taxi regulatory decisions. First, fare increases do substantially increase industry revenues but at a lesser rate than the percentage increase in the fare. The implication for policy-makers is that fare elasticities must be carefully considered to obtain desired improvements in drivers' earnings. Second, service availability -- an important aspect of service quality that is generally overlooked during fare policy debates -- should be a central consideration in fare setting, given the considerable impact of fares on availability. Finally, where the supply of cabs needs to be expanded, the number of cabs can be significantly increased without harming the revenue stream of existing operators. This finding alleviates a major industry objection to issuing additional taxicab licenses.     

The Demise of a Tropical Coastal Lagoon as Breeding Habitat for Ground-Nesting Waterbirds: Unintended,but Anticipated Consequences of Development

Laguna Cuyutlán (Colima, Mexico), an Important Bird Area, used to provide breeding habitat for ground-nesting waterbirds. During 2014 and 2015, nesting efforts of laughing gull, black skimmer, and royal, gull-billed and Forster's terns failed almost completely due to inundation, while least terns and snowy plovers fared the same during 2014. No anomalies in rainfall, tidal level, or coseismic subsidence explained such failure. Rather, the inundations were due to the enlarging of Canal Tepalcates that connects the lagoon with the sea, which was widened from 100 to 300 m and dredged to 17-m deep. Before this, the hydrodynamics were regulated by evaporation and runoff. Now, increased seawater volumes dominate the basin's hydrodynamics. The failure of Laguna Cuyutlán as a breeding habitat for these birds is an important threat for these species, as this lagoon held one of the < 20 colonies known for several of these species along the western coast of North and Central America. Documenting this demise of Laguna Cuyutlán for ground-nesting waterbirds transcends the regional scale as it emphasizes the little consideration still given to biodiversity vs. economic development, and is a warning for coastal projects in other developing areas of the world.     

Book review

Onshore Planning for Offshore Oil—Lessons from Scotland by Pamela L. Baldwin and Malcolm F. Baldwin The Conservation Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1975     

Estimation of the effects of aircraft noise on residential satisfaction

This study assesses the effects of aircraft noise on residential satisfaction, an important indicator of subjective well-being. A structural equation model is specified that estimates the relationships between objective variables, noise annoyance variables and residential satisfaction. Secondary data-analysis is used to estimate the model. The survey was conducted in 1996/1997 among the population living within a 25-km radius of Amsterdam Schiphol, the largest airport in the Netherlands. The effect of aircraft noise annoyance is found to be relatively small. In addition, the objective level of aircraft noise exposure is found to be a better predictor of residential satisfaction than its subjective counterpart. The most important determinants of residential satisfaction are found to be road traffic noise annoyance, age and neighbor noise annoyance.     

Methodology for the accuracy improvement of FEM beam type T-junctions of buses and coaches structures

The analysis of structures with finite elements methods (FEM) represents a widely spread technique. For large tubular structures similar to the buses and coaches upper structures, beam type elements are utilized due to the fact that these elements provide satisfactory results at relatively reduced computational performances. However the beam type elements have a main disadvantage determined by the fact that the modeled joints have an infinite rigid behavior. This shortcoming determines a stiffer behavior of the modeled structures which translates into an error source for the structural simulations (up to 45%). To overcome this problem, a simple methodology was conceived and an alternative optimized equivalent beam model obtained. The methodology studies the behavioral characteristics of beam modeled T-junctions determining their limitations and comparing them to equivalent T-junctions modeled with shell and volume elements. This way an improved Tjunction has been obtained, in which the behavioral error was reduced to less than 5%. Furthermore the FEM obtained results were validated with real T-junctions.     

船舶燃料的全球化标准——国际海事组织（IMO）新标准要求船只采用更具环保性、更高成本的燃料

更具环保性，成本更高，是国际海事组织新标准要求船舶经营人放弃船舶传统燃料而采用蒸馏燃料的两个结果。此外，全球统一的船舶传统燃料环保标准也是放弃船舶燃料而采用蒸馏燃料的必然结果。     

Spatial fisheries ecology: Recent progress and future prospects

We review recent progresses made in the study of fish distribution and survival over space — i.e., fisheries spatial ecology. This is achieved by first surveying the most common statistical approaches and relative challenges associated with the analysis of fisheries spatial data, loosely grouped in geostatistical and regression approaches. Then we review a selected number of case-studies implementing the discussed techniques. We conclude by proposing new areas of statistical and ecological research to further our understanding of how fish distribute and survive in space. This review serves a dual purpose by emphasizing the scientific importance of studying spatial interactions to better understand the temporal dynamics of fish abundance, and by promoting the development of new analytical and ecological approaches for the analysis of spatial data. Through our survey we cover different statistical techniques, marine ecosystems and life stages. This analytical, geographic and ontogenetic variety is also purposely selected to highlight the importance of comparative and multidisciplinary studies across diverging ecological disciplines, ecosystems and life stages. Besides having a general ecological relevance this review also bears a more applied significance, owing to the increasing need for protecting renewable marine resources along with their primary habitat.