Who mans the world fleet? A follow-up to the BIMCO/ ISF manpower survey

This article uncovers that the BIMCO/ISF manpower survey, both in its data collection and methodology, could be improved upon. It suggests that there is no lack of seafarers in number, but in quality. The major potential supply/demand countries are identified. China has not only the potential to become, it has actually become, a top manpower supplier. Some traditional maritime nations, with the decreasing demands of their national fleets, have become labour supply country, which could contribute in excess of 44000 seafarers to foreign ships. There is a need and opportunity for co-operation on maritime training between suppliers and demanders.     

Estimation of AADT from short period counts in hong kong — A comparison between neural network method and regression analysis

The average annual daily traffic (AADT) volumes can be estimated by using a short period count of less than twenty‐four hour duration. In this paper, the neural network method is adopted for the estimation of AADT from short period counts and for the determination of the most appropriate length of counts. A case study is carried out by analysing data at thirteen locations on trunk roads and primary roads in urban area of Hong Kong. The estimation accuracy is also compared with the one obtained by regression analysis approach. The results show that the neural network approach consistently performed better than the regression analysis approach.     

A spatial decision support system for retail plan generation and impact assessment

Current geographic information systems typically offer limited analytical capabilities and lack the flexibility to support spatial decision making effectively. Spatial decision support systems aim to fill this gap. Following this approach, this paper describes an operational system for integrated land-use and transportation planning called Location Planner. The system integrates a wide variety of spatial models in a flexible and easy-to-use problem solving environment. Users are able to construct a model out of available components and use the model for impact analysis and optimization. Thus, in contrast to existing spatial decision support systems, the proposed system allows users to address a wide range of problems. The paper describes the architecture of the system and an illustrative application. Furthermore, the potentials of the system for land-use and transportation planning are discussed.     

A numerical study of stochastic larval settlement in the California Current system

Key to the predictive understanding of many nearshore marine ecosystems is the transport of larvae by ocean circulation processes. Many species release thousands to billions of larvae to develop in pelagic waters, but only a few lucky ones successfully settle to suitable habitat and recruit to adult life stages. Methodologies for predicting the larval dispersal are still primitive, and simple diffusive analyses are still used for many important applications. In this study, we investigate mechanisms of larval dispersal using idealized simulations of time-evolving coastal circulations in the California Current system with Lagrangian particles as models for planktonic larvae. Connectivity matrices, which describe the source-to-destination relationships for larval dispersal for a given larval development time course, are used to diagnose the time–space dynamics of larval settlement. The resulting connectivity matrices are shown to be a function of several important time scales, such as the planktonic larval duration, the frequency and duration of larval release events and inherent time scales for the coastal circulations. Many important fishery management applications require knowledge of fish stocks on a year-to-year or generation-to-generation basis. For these short time scales (typically less than 1 year), larval dispersal is generally far from a simple diffusive process and the consideration of the stochastic and episodic nature of larval dispersal is required. This work provides new insights into the spatial–temporal dynamics of nearshore fish stocks.     

美国新泽西州马纳霍金海湾大桥的疲劳问题

美国新泽西州72号公路马纳霍金海湾大桥的上部结构由17跨连续及悬臂铆接钢板梁和横梁系统组成,其中包括5跨销钉一吊杆悬挂梁.由于桥梁的"结构性能不足",20世纪90年代初对大桥进行了系统的修复工作.修复实施过程中,在很多部位发现了疲劳裂纹和桥面板混凝土剥落,疲劳裂纹主要为出现在横梁腹板的水平裂纹、横梁与主梁间托板连接角钢...     

Simulating pedestrian movements at signalized crosswalks in Hong Kong

This paper presents a new pedestrian simulation (PS) model for signalized crosswalks in Hong Kong. This PS model is capable of estimating the variations of walking speed particularly on the effects of bi-directional pedestrian flows so as to determine the minimum required duration of pedestrian crossing time. Video records taken from the observational surveys at the selected crosswalk in urban area were used to extract the required data for model calibration. It was found that the design walking speed for signalized crosswalks should be varied by the effects of the bi-directional pedestrian flows. It was also interesting to note that the negative impact of the bi-directional flow effects (ranging from uni-directional to bi-directional pedestrian flows) on the chance of pedestrian crossing the crosswalk is increasing from free-flow to at-capacity flow conditions. The new PS model is also validated using an independent data set so as to examine the reliability of the simulation results. The validation results show that the new PS model can provide an accurate evaluation on the changes of walking speed and its standard deviation under different scenarios with particular emphasis on the effects of the bi-directional pedestrian flows. The advancement of this PS model can be applied to assess the effects of each improvement measure and to evaluate the benefits of each scenario in practice.     

后桥钢板激光-MIG复合焊接优化研究

研究了两种后桥桥壳用低合金钢板在激光-MIG复合焊接中,接头形状、接头间隙及MIG参数变化(大、中、小MIG参数)对焊缝形状及焊缝喉厚的影响.研究结果表明,MIG参数应设置成大、中MIG参数水平,以保证在一定的接头间隙下有充足的焊接材料填入间隙而形成部分焊透的焊缝,使焊缝喉厚满足焊接强度要求;过高的MIG输入能量和过多的焊料(丝)填入将导致焊缝横截面积增大,但对焊缝喉厚的影响不是很明显;当MIG参数设置成小MIG参数水平时,0.5 mm的接头间隙或切角面为3 mm×2 mm时,对获得较大的焊缝喉厚有利.     

Who is safe and who is at risk: a study of 20-year-record on accident total loss in different flags

The study examines 20-years of data on 36 world principal fleets and on worldfleets in general, analyses their developments, and particularly their safety records in terms of accidental total loss rates. This study confirms that the open-registry ships tend toward substandard ships. However, some open-registry countries' safety records are quite acceptable. It finds that the safety record of developing maritime countries as a group is better than that of developed maritime countries, of which some are worse than the world average.     

Modeling urban taxi services in road networks: Progress,problem and prospect

Traditionally, many economists have examined the models and economics of urban taxi services under various types of regulation such as entry restriction and price control in an aggregate way. Only recently have we modeled urban taxi services in a network context. A realistic method has been proposed to describe vacant and occupied taxi movements in a road network and taxi drivers' search behavior for customers. A few extensions have been made to deal with demand elasticity and congestion effects together with development of efficient solution algorithms. Calibration and validation of the network taxi service models have been conducted towards their practical applications. This paper presents an overview of the research that has been carried out by the authors to develop network equilibrium models and solution algorithms for urban taxi services, and offers perspectives for future researches.     

Second-order hydrodynamic effects on an arrangement of two concentric truncated vertical cylinders

The second-order diffraction problem by a piston-like arrangement that consists of two concentric surface piercing cylinders is considered. The developed matched axisymmetric eigenfunction expansion solution methodology in cylindrical co-ordinates is based on the semi-analytical formulation of the velocity potentials in the various fluid regions which are defined by the geometry of the two-body arrangement. The main difficulty associated with the specific configuration originates from the fact that the geometry defines two fluid regions that extend up to the free surface in which the inhomogeneous second-order free surface boundary condition has to be fulfilled. To this end the associated velocity potentials in these regions are decomposed into a number of components defining the so-called ‘free’ and ‘locked’ waves. The latter are calculated by solving the resulting Sturm–Liouville problems. The seek second-order velocity potential in the whole fluid domain is then derived by enforcing matching conditions for the radial velocities and the fluid pressures at the cylindrical boundaries of adjacent fluid domains. Numerical results concerning the second-order hydrodynamic loading and the wave run-up on the cylinders are given, whereas special attention is given at incident wave frequency regions where the first-order exciting wave forces attain maximum values due to the resonant fluid motions in the moonpool.