Scientists and Crew

This study reports on scientist/crew relations aboard research vessels at sea. It is a case study in a case study in a long-range project dealing with the relations of natural scientists in the U.S.A. to various segments of the lay population. An earlier paper dealt with the interaction of scientists and Government policy makers during the science-advisory process [1]. In that study we found that the frustration was reciprocal; scientists and policy makers were equally vocal on what was wrong with ‘ the other groups’. The present research, by comparison, focuses on scientists and members of ‘the working class’. Here we find the frustration rather one-sided, reflecting the differences in status and power of the two groups. On a research vessel, science and scientists control the lives and careers of the mariners. In the science-advising committee, members of both government and science meet as social equals.

In this paper elements of conflict between scientists and crew on a research vessel are described. It is suggested that conflict between these two groups is the inevitable result of extending the ‘intellectual’/‘worker’ class conflict of our society to a closed space at sea. The controlling mechanism of the conflict may be called ‘subcultural privacy’, a mechanism worked out by mariners to cope with the disrupting effects of a constant stream of strangers into their sea-going home. The mechanism takes the form of institutionalized ‘bitching’ and systematic physical separation of scientists and crew during critical periods of the day. It is suggested that attempts to create greater crew/scientist harmony by forcing by greater interaction (and thus a breakdown of subcultural privacy) will be counter productive.     

Criteria for local transport subsidies

Governments have rarely been content to leave the provision of public transport services entirely to the market. Competition has been regulated and increasingly services have been subsidized from public funds. However, the criteria for such subsidies have been a continuing source of debate. Economists have tended to emphasize efficiency criteria and advocated the use of cost‐benefit analysis, but, for a variety of reasons, in the U.K. at least, this approach does not seem to have played a major role in the allocation of subsidies. Others have advocated more needs‐based approaches. Whilst these have been tried, they also have their limitations. The first few sections of the paper, therefore, review the development of these approaches in the U.K. and consider their shortcomings from the point of view of deciding on transport subsidies. In the latter part of the paper it is suggested that developments in the appraisal of health care procedures, particularly in the use of cost‐utility techniques, indicate a possible alternative approach. The approach in the health context is outlined and it is demonstrated how it might be applied to the appraisal of local transport services.     

观市2011

全球经济机遇与挑战并存 2011年全球经济复苏呈现"双轨"态势.国际货币基金组织(IMP)预测2011年和2012年新兴经济体和发展中国家将保持在6.5%的增长水平,略低于2010年7%的增速,其中增速最快的仍是亚洲发展中国家的中国和印度.2011年和2012年发达国家经济将增长2.5%.     

NOBODY NEEDS A BOAT 作一名感觉销售者

生活对每个人来说都是必需的。作为一个行业，我们没有太多理由认为人们会受诱惑买我们的产品。 的确,一个客户可能会对某船的尺寸和独特设计有兴趣，甚至对它的设计建造最细微的细节都感兴趣；但是从一开始就吸引他的其实是一个简单的感情，那就是这艘船给他的感觉如何。     

单GPS定位导航产品将淡出江湖

随着城市和交通路网建设的发展，以及用户对产品认知的提高，用户开始对GPS导航产品的有效性产生了质疑，根源则是现今绝大部分市场上正在使用的导航产品完全依赖于GPS进行定位，由于技术特性的限制，该类导航产品存在很大的缺陷，这些缺陷导致了频繁的误入歧路或者无法给用户有效指导，甚至用户反映用不如不用的结论。     

Waiting profiles: An efficient protocol for enabling distributed planning of container barge rotations along terminals in the port of Rotterdam

We consider the problem of aligning barge rotations with quay schedules of terminals in the port of Rotterdam. Every time a barge visits the port, it has to make a rotation along, on average, eight terminals to load and unload containers. A central solution, e.g., a trusted party that coordinates the activities of all barges and terminals, is not feasible for several reasons. We propose a multi-agent based approach of the problem, since a multi-agent system can mirror to a large extent the way the business network is currently organized and can provide a solution that is acceptable to each of the parties involved. We examine the value of exchanging different levels of information and evaluate the performance by means of simulation. We compare the results with an off-line scheduling algorithm. The results indicate that, in spite of the limited information available, our distributed approach performs quite well when compared to the central approach. In addition, our experiments indicate that an information exchange based on waiting profiles reduces the average tardiness per barge with almost 80% when compared to the situation with no information exchange. We therefore think that waiting profiles provide a promising protocol to tackle this problem.     

导航仪为何是电子狗杀手

目前，针对公路上的“电子眼”，一些车主购买了“反雷达测速器”（俗称电子狗）来对抗，目的是为了避免收到“牛肉干”（罚款单）。但是“电子狗”质量参差不齐，而且价格也不菲，这让车主对“电子狗”又爱又恨。随着国内导航软件技术的进步及导航地图更完整地包含了雷达测速器位置，“电子狗”功能整合在导航系统中已成为现实。导航仪价格的不断下降，     

A two-dimensional response to a tropical storm on the Gulf of Mexico shelf

Surface current data from drifting buoys and remotely sensed wind data recorded over the continental shelf in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico during the passage of tropical storm Josephine in October 1996 are examined. Drifter data show the existence of a strong surface jet (velocities reaching 1 m s⁻¹) that moves up the west Florida shelf and westward along the Louisiana–Texas shelf, and lasts for nearly 1 week. The coastal jet occurs during an intense synoptic scale wind event where wind speeds reach 15 m s⁻¹. A simple force balance and statistical analysis are performed to assess the role of strong wind forcing. The primary balance shows an Ekman-type current. The role of local acceleration is greatest when winds are directed along bathymetry. A simple two-dimensional strongly forced shelf response model developed from the linear steady-state momentum equations also indicates larger along-shore currents due to both Ekman-type forcing by cross-shore winds and a cross-shore pressure gradient arising from conservation of mass. Model parameters fit empirically are within 15% of theoretical values. The simple model explains 30% and 46% of the variance in the observed along-shore and cross-shore surface currents, respectively.     

Man and his transport behaviour Part 4a. User response to price changes: application of the ‘threshold’ concept

Summary

(1) The response of an individual consumer to change in such characteristics as price will be to change behaviour at a critical point, a ‘threshold’ at which a change of behaviour is perceived to be beneficial.

(2) Most choices can be viewed as binary, for example, between pairs of transport modes. A cumulative normal distribution of responses will give an S‐shaped curve, the mid‐point being at the average threshold value.

(3) An aggregate demand curve should show the response of a given group of people to a range of price changes at one point in time. Most curves derived from revealed behaviour do not permit this. To some extent, a demand curve must be derived from interviews and other tests, giving hypothetical behaviour. Such methods are used in non‐transport consumer tests, and work by Brög et al. gives a similar picture for transport users, supporting the concept of the S‐shaped curve.

(4) Allowance for frequency of trip‐making modifies this picture, suggesting that a smoother curve may be appropriate for some conditions, such as non‐work trips. These approaches may be combined by use of catastrophe theory, with two control factors. The hysteresis effect is found around the threshold where repeated changes in the basic stimulus produce successively smaller responses.

(5) There is some evidence of symmetrical response by public transport users to real increases and reductions in cash‐paid graduated fares, but this is not the case where different forms of pricing are involved.

(6) An example of threshold effects in private transport may be found in the monitoring of tolls on the Itchen Bridge by Atkins. Demand became particularly sensitive to price in a certain range.

(7) In the public transport field, there is similar evidence from the experience of introducing flat or zonal fares where graduated fares previously applied. Where travelcards are sold, the effect is much greater, and cases such as the West Midlands show little if any effect on sales despite real price increases. Here, trips are about 7% higher than would have been expected for the same revenue target, had graduated fares been retained. However, it may well be possible to exceed the threshold, especially where fares simplification and increases are combined, as the Trondheim experience suggests.