Calibration of large-scale transport planning models: a structured approach

Transportation - Traditionally, transport planning model systems are estimated and calibrated in an unstructured way, which does not allow for interactions among included parameters to be...     

U.S. public transit earnings, employment and privatization

This paper uses individual worker and municipal information to examine privatization's influence on public transit workers' earnings and employment. OLS findings on labor earnings reveal that privatization is associated with an erosion of the public transit union premium. These labor earning findings do not change when correcting for privatization heterogeneity, as unobserved worker characteristics do not differ with differing levels of municipal privatization of public transit services. The employment findings reveal that union public transit workers are more likely to be employed in the public sector and this union-nonunion employment probability differential, declines with increasing levels of privatization. This employment result is interpreted as suggesting that labor cost savings from privatization can be derived from the enhanced employment of relatively low wage nonunion workers in the public sector of public transit services.     

Phytoplankton patch patterns: Seascape anatomy in a turbulent ocean

Marine phytoplankton experience competition, predation, infection and aggregation occurring across distances of micrometres to centimetres. However, the consequences of these interactions influence global processes, such as climate and fisheries productivity. There is a long-standing default assumption that these global processes cannot be traced to plankton distributions and interactions below a few metres because of the homogenising effect of turbulence [Hutchinson, G.E., 1961. The paradox of the plankton. Am. Nat. 95, 137–146.; Siegel, D.A., 1998. Resource competition in a discrete environment: Why are plankton distributions paradoxical? Limnol. Oceanogr. 43, 1133–1146.]. We show that, in active turbulence, phytoplankton patches, on the order of 10 cm, have repeatable asymmetry and regular spacing over distances of centimetres to tens of metres. The regularity and hierarchical nature of the patches in mixed ocean water means that phytoplankton are distributed in a dynamic, but definite seascape topography, where groups of patches coalesce between intermittent turbulent eddies. These patches may link large scale processes and microscale interactions, acting as fundamental components of marine ecosystems that influence grazing efficiency, taxonomic diversity, and the initiation of aggregation and subsequent carbon flux.     

Advection schemes for shelf sea models

Numerical models of shelf seas must handle sharp gradients in thermoclines and fronts, and at the edges of patches of passive tracer, often in the presence of strong tidal currents, without introducing excessive numerical diffusion or spurious oscillations. In a sigma coordinate model there is an additional problem, since then purely horizontal motion over a sloping sea bed may introduce strong numerical diffusion in the vertical, which can artificially erode thermoclines.In this paper, two advection schemes applicable to shelf sea models are examined. They are based on TVD (Total Variation Diminishing) and PPM (Piecewise Parabolic Method) techniques. They are demonstrated to give satisfactory performance for tracer advection in one, two and three dimensions. They are both monotonic, and the PPM scheme has particularly low numerical diffusion. In two and three dimensions directional splitting is used, which is handled by following advection with each horizontal velocity component by adjustment of the sigma levels in each water column using the same advection scheme. The artificial vertical diffusion is then small, particularly with PPM.The two schemes are also compared in a three-dimensional model of a cylindrical eddy of relatively fresh water, released from rest in an open sea region. Here, both salinity and momentum are advected. Laboratory experiments show that after an initial period of adjustment the eddy should become unstable, with a growth of cyclonic-anticyclonic eddy pairs. This is reproduced in the model, with the PPM scheme again producing sharper results than the TVD scheme.Integrated second moment calculations are used to compare the schemes. These demonstrate the lower numerical diffusion of the PPM scheme. This advantage is achieved at the cost of greater computing time.     

Aspects of family and kinship in a North Carolina coastal community: a comparative study

The almost total absence of social-science data on North Carolina coastal fishing communities has provoked this preliminary study of the role played by family and kinship ties among fishermen and boat builders in such a community, with a view to developing new fisheries management strategies from an assessment of the social and economic impacts of those which already exist.     

The subsidization of seaports: an alternative approach

The introduction of the tonnage tax for shipping companies has been a response to the declining fleets in many European countries. There are strategic and commercial reasons why a maritime presence is desirable, not least of which is to maintain an important skill base. Although regimes have differed they all offer some form of preferential rates of tax for those ships on the register. In certain cases this tax subsidy has been linked to a requirement to train seafarers, notably in the UK. This article analyses the impact of the tonnage tax system and its success in achieving its objectives of fleet expansion and employment with particular reference to the UK.