The competitiveness of short sea shipping in multimodal logistics supply chains: service attributes

Much has been written and spoken about short sea shipping within the European Union (EU) as a means of shifting goods from road to sea and of achieving a sustainable economic development. However, this shift is far from being a general reality, despite the few individual, and success stories that have taken place and the EUROSTAT data suggest that the overall effort has contributed very little towards attaining this desired shift. In the light of this, research was conducted to discover how to put short sea shipping on a more competitive level within European multimodal logistics supply chains. This paper aims at identifying service attributes of short sea shipping operations within multimodal transport chains by means of a questionnaire and, for that, examines the short sea shipping environment and contemporary European logistics trends. The analysis is based on empirical research, involving logistics operators, shippers' associations and intermodal rail operators, and allows an evaluation (based on statistical techniques) of the short sea shipping industry and its competitors. It extends previous work by considering these short sea shipping attributes within a multimodal transport context.     

The Art of Successfully Applying Human Systems Integration

This paper reviews developments in human factors and then draws from a number of "best practice" cases in studying how best to apply behavioral science principles, knowledge, and analytical tools to the engineering design or improvement of systems. Government and other commercial experiences are examined with a focus on the Navy human system integration (HSI) process. Included are discussions facilitated at a workshop session sponsored by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. There is general consensus that in addition to using a well-designed or proven process and doing the right things, success is dependent upon attending to a prioritized short list of critical elements. Continued focus on these elements is necessary to successfully apply human behavioral sciences effectively during design, construction, and operation of systems to improve safety, reliability, effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of life.     

Variability of snow and ice thermal, physical and optical properties pertinent to sea ice algae biomass during spring

Changes in the thermal, physical and optical properties of the snow–sea ice system and feedbacks between various temporal and spatial scales affect accumulation of microalgae at the sea ice bottom and are the focus of this research. During the spring transition period, May 4 to June 9, 2002, we closely monitored atmospheric conditions and properties of the snow–sea ice system, including thermal, physical and optical properties of the snow cover (e.g., temperature, grain size, light attenuation), ice thickness and salinity, and biomass of bottom ice algae. Results show that snowdrift size averaged 31.2 by 10.6 m with a depth range of 2 to 45 cm. Snowpacks also varied in age, distinguished by coincident peaks of snow salinity and grain size and a lower PAR extinction coefficient. Spatial variability of the snowpack was superimposed by temporal variability associated with seasonal snow–ice melt and wind redistribution of snow. Maximum biomass of ice algae was observed under intermediate snow covers. Under thin snow covers, algae biomass declined steadily coincident with seasonal warming and desalination of the ice cover. Under thick snow covers, algae biomass was negatively correlated with snow depth. These results suggest that thin snow covers were associated with a thermal effect causing sloughing of algae, whereas under deep snow, algae were still light limited and thermally insulated from the warming atmosphere. Our results highlight the importance of snow cover history on the sea ice system operating below. Furthermore, in the context of current climate change scenarios, shifts in snow depth would result in decreases of ice algae biomass.     

THE LA ANTIGEN INHIBITS THE ACTIVATION OF THE INTERFERON－INDUCIBLE PROTEIN KINASE PKR BY SEQUESTERING AND UNWINDING DOUBLE－ST

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Customer loads of two-wheeled vehicles

Customer usage profiles are the most unknown influences in vehicle design targets and they play an important role in durability analysis. This publication presents a customer load acquisition system for two-wheeled vehicles that utilises the vehicle's onboard signals. A road slope estimator was developed to reveal the unknown slope resistance force with the help of a linear Kalman filter. Furthermore, an automated mass estimator was developed to consider the correct vehicle loading. The mass estimation is performed by an extended Kalman filter. Finally, a model-based wheel force calculation was derived, which is based on the superposition of forces calculated from measured onboard signals. The calculated wheel forces were validated by measurements with wheel–load transducers through the comparison of rainflow matrices. The calculated wheel forces correspond with the measured wheel forces in terms of both quality and quantity. The proposed methods can be used to gather field data for improved vehicle design loads.     

Majorization of working parameters for non-thermal plasma reactor and impact on no oxidation of diesel engine

The main target of this work is to realize the function of pre-oxidizing NO from diesel engine’s exhaust by using self-designed double-dielectric Non-thermal Plasma (NTP) reactor. The majorized discharge frequency and discharge peak to peak voltage (V_p-p) range for NTP reactor were obtained through air discharge test. The diesel engine test bench was established to observe the effect of NTP on the volume fraction of NO. The results showed that there were more active substances and fewer by-products in NTP reactor when discharge frequency was 9 kHz and V_p-p was between 9 kV and 23 kV; Exhaust flows had insignificant effect on the performance of NTP pre-oxidizing NO; The ability of NTP to pre-oxidize NO gradually weakened with the increase of engine load, and when the engine load were 0 % and 25 %, the ratio of NO/NO₂ could reach 1. In such working conditions, SCR system could improve the conversion rate of the NO_x at low-temperature zone through quick reaction combined with NTP.     

Gap metering for active traffic control at freeway merging sections

Freeway merging sections are critical segments that can recurrently activate peak-hour traffic congestion. This article proposes a novel vehicular gap control method as a new Active Traffic Management (ATM) strategy to be added to the existing Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) toolboxes for freeway merge control. The proposed strategy, “Gap Metering,” can be considered a non-stopping mainline version of ramp metering. It utilizes signals advising mainline through vehicles to yield sufficient gaps for merging vehicles. Detailed system design and control methods are proposed and implemented in VISSIM (please spell out the abbreviation of VISSIM for this first instance), a microsimulation software package. Different driver behavior sets with different standstill headway values are created to allow switching between gap-metered vehicles and regular vehicles. We evaluate the proposed system through two VISSIM models built and calibrated, respectively, for both the I-894 corridor in Milwaukee, WI, and the Riverside Drive segment on I-35 northbound in Austin, TX. Both corridors experience severe morning peak-hour congestion. We use the I-894 corridor for testing the system design parameters and use the I-35 corridor to conduct a comparison with the ramp metering strategies. The I-894 results indicate an average of 10–20% network delay reduction among all scenarios. We then tested the scenario on the I-35 corridor and compared with the ALINEAR ramp metering. Gap metering strategies alone or combined with ramp metering can, respectively, reduce 17% and 27% more total delay than ramp metering only control at 20% compliance rate.     

Influence of rail pressure on a two-stage turbocharged heavy-duty diesel engine under transient operation

The demand for continually improving the transient performance of diesel engines requires higher rail pressure and more efficient turbocharger. Before the test, a two-stage turbocharger with a turbine by-pass valve (TBV) had been matched reasonably with the base engine. In order to reduce smoke emission under the typical 5-second transient process of constant speed and increasing torque, the influence of rail pressure on combustion, emissions and performance characteristics was experimentally investigated. The results showed that the two-stage turbocharger was helpful in improving transient performance. Moreover, the full-stage rail pressure (FSRP) strategies (increasing rail pressure during the whole transient process) could reduce smoke emission when the TBV was closed. However, smoke deteriorated once TBV opening got larger. Then the sectional-stage rail pressure (SSRP) strategies (increasing rail pressure from a pre-set load to 100 % load) were presented under small TBV opening to improve in-cylinder thermal condition. Hence, the air-fuel mixing process was improved at medium and large loads. Then the maximum decline of smoke opacity peak was 56.3 %, which happened under 10 % TBV opening. In addition, fuel consumption of FSRP strategies got worse under larger TBV opening. However, this deterioration situation could be effectively restrained by the utilization of SSRP strategies.     

Judicial Interpretations of Federal Consistency under the Coastal Zone Management Act

The federal consistency provision of the Coastal Zone Management Act (1972) created a new form of interaction between federal and state governments. The implementation of this provision has significant ramifications for coastal management and intergovernmental cooperation in the United States. Past studies have focused on the provision's implementation patterns among U.S. coastal states and federal-state disputes mediated by the Secretary of Commerce. This supplemental article examines judicial interpretations of the federal consistency provision over the past two decades in relation to major issues deliberated by Congress at the time of enactment. Recent changes in the provision, as well as those unresolved issues likely to resurface in future litigation, are also discussed. Seemingly, coastal land use authority and offshore energy exploration remain the most contentious issues surrounding the federal consistency provision.     

The use of GIS and relational database management systems to improve the scheduling operations of paratransit

The scheduling operations of many paratransit agencies in the United States are undertaken manually. Those customers who are eligible to travel call in their requests the day before the trip is needed. As the trip requests are received, they are entered into a list of unscheduled trips. In order to schedule these trips, the scheduler must first determine the number of drivers and shuttle buses that are available as well as the time of availability of each. The scheduler must then try to match the rides that are in “similar” areas around the “same” time to place together on the driver's schedule. As new trip requests are made, the schedulers must adjust the trips that are already scheduled to try and schedule as many trips as possible in the most efficient way.

By developing a system that would improve the scheduling system operations of, in this case, DART (Delaware Administration for Regional Transit) First State Paratransit, customers can expect to receive better service that will improve their ability to travel throughout the community. Some devices that could also improve the operations of paratransit agencies are described in this paper, such as satellite‐based Global Positioning System (GPS), radio communication systems, mobile computers, radio frequency‐based data communication systems, internet web pages, automated paratransit information systems, and card‐based data storage and transfer media. However, because paratransit systems are difficult to operate cost‐efficiently, the optimum and most cost‐efficient device must be selected. The system chosen for DART First State Paratransit includes the use of a relational database management system (RDMS) and a transportation Geographic Information System (GIS). RDMS keeps track of the database information as well as the scheduled trips and the GIS is ideal for analyzing both geographic and temporal data. This system is shown to be superior to the manual system.