Conditional modelling of tanker market risk using route specific freight rates

This paper provides statistical evidence in support of the view, widely held in the tanker industry, that there are systematic differences in the degree of risk involved in investing in tankers of different sizes, and in operating tankers in spot and time charter markets. The industry view, broadly supported by the results of this paper, is that larger vessels are 'risker' assets than smaller vessels, and operating vessels in the time-charter market is less risky than employing them on a spot basis. The results are obtained by using a method derived from the financial economics literature, which models both the conditional mean and variance of a variable, known as GARCH modelling. Only one other paper has applied this method to the tanker market, and these results provide confirmatory support of those findings.     

Devising business strategy for railways

This paper presents a case study which tackles a general problem for railway management, namely the formulation of a strategy to improve business financial performance. This is prefaced, in Section 2, by discussion of general principles - concerning the type of information system required, investigations to be conducted and associated measurement needs. The case study, of Section 3, concerns our investigations of VicRail's total business and its constituents. The task of financial improvement is revealed from an assessment of sectors' current cost-recovery positions and the identification of system joint costs. For freight sectors, future traffic prospects, pricing possibilities and the scope for more efficient operations are then considered, and the implications traced for overall deficit reduction and the development of business strategy. The concluding section draws some general lessons for railway managements.A fuller discussion by the authors of the theoretical framework employed, and particularly of the case study application, is contained in a complimentary publication: Improving Railway Financial Performance, published by Gower in January 1985.Transmark is a subsidiary of the British Railways Board, acting as its international consultancy. The authors, who were respectively study director and manager, wish to thank Bernard Warner (an independent consultant), Richard Eccles (of Transmark) and Adrian Balkyn-Rackowe (of British Rail) for their valuable contributions. The study report, titled Rail Cost — Pricing Options, was released by the Minister in April 1981.     

A game-theoretic analysis of competition among container port hubs: the case of Busan and Shanghai 1

Countries throughout the world, and especially within Asia, are investing heavily in container port infrastructure in the hopes of capturing a larger share of global shipping activity for their economies. Many existing ports are emphasizing developing the capacity to serve as a hub port, building deepwater berths with large terminals to facilitate transfer of containers from feeder ships to mother ships for intercontinental transport. We develop a game-theoretic best response framework for understanding how competitor ports will respond to development at a focus port, and whether the focus port will be able to capture or defend market share by building additional capacity. We apply this model to investment and competition currently occurring between the ports of Busan and Shanghai.     

考虑疲劳强度和减轻质量的转向架构架设计

用有限元法对各种载荷工况下的转向架构架进行了疲劳分析,利用人工神经网络和遗传算法最大程度地减轻了转向架构架的质量.     

Model-based design of a variable nozzle turbocharger controller

Variable Nozzle Turbocharger (VNT) was invented to solve the problem of matching an ordinary turbocharger with an engine. VNT can harness exhaust energy more efficiently, enhance intake airflow response and reduce engine emissions, especially during transient operating conditions. The difficulty of VNT control lies in how to regulate the position of the nozzle at different engine working conditions. The control strategy designed in this study is a combination of a closed-loop feedback controller and an open-loop feed-forward controller. The gain-scheduled proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller was implemented as the feedback controller to overcome the nonlinear characteristic. As it is difficult to tune the parameters of the gain-scheduled PID controller on an engine test bench, system identification was used to identify the plant model properties at different working points for a WP10 diesel engine on the test bench. The PID controller parameters were calculated based on the identified first-order-plus-dead-time (FOPDT) plant model. The joint simulation of the controller and the plant model was performed in Matlab/Simulink. The time-domain and frequency-domain performances of the entire system were evaluated. The designed VNT control system was verified with engine tests. The results indicated that the real boosting pressure traced the target boosting pressure well at different working conditions.     

Deflection test and transmission error measurement to identify hypoid gear whine noise

T-Hypoid gears are commonly used in rear-drive and 4WD (4 Wheel Drive) vehicle axles. Investigating their sensitivity to deflections is one of the most important aspects of their design and optimization procedures. Therefore, a deflection test was performed in this study in the actual gear mounting using completely processed gear. This test covered the full operating range of gear loads from “no load” to “peak load”. Under peak load, the contact pattern extended to the tooth boundaries without showing a concentration of the contact pattern at any point on the tooth surface. The transmission error was tested under an axle assembly triaxial-real-car-load condition.     

Development of a navigation algorithm with dead reckoning for unmanned ground vehicles

A navigation algorithm is indispensable for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs). During driving, UGVs follow a global path. In this study, we propose a navigation algorithm using Real Time Kinematic (RTK)-Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) units and encoders to complement global path planning. Sometimes GPS systems lose their signals and receive inaccurate position data due to many factors, such as edifice and barrier obstructions. This paper shows that GPS deviations can be solved using a Dead Reckoning (DR) navigation method with encoders and that position errors can be decreased through the use of RTK-DGPS units. In addition to this method, we will introduce a new waypoint update algorithm and a steering algorithm using RTK-DGPS units.     

License plate extraction method for identification of vehicle violations at a railway level crossing

The primary cause of most railroad accidents is vehicle entry into railway level crossings despite warning messages. To identify drivers who violate railway level crossing regulations, vehicle license plate recognition can be applied at railway level crossings. The purpose of this paper is to present an effective method for extracting the license plate region from vehicle images taken at railway level crossings. The method proposed in this paper uses the variation in the gray-level values across the image of a license plate. For license plate region extraction, the character region is first recognized by identifying the character width and the difference between the background region and the character region. The license plate region is then extracted by finding the inter-character distance in the plate region. In addition, the license plate type is identified by the difference in the gray-level value between the background region and the character region. The proposed method is effective in solving the current challenges in extracting the license plate region from the damaged frames of license plates issued for domestic use, including new types of license plates. According to the experimental results, the proposed method yields a high extraction rate of 99.5% for vehicle license plates.     

In-use measurement of the activity, fuel use, and emissions of eight cement mixer trucks operated on each of petroleum diesel and soy-based B20 biodiesel

In-use micro-scale fuel use and emission rates were measured for eight cement mixer trucks using a portable emission measurement system. Each vehicle was tested on petroleum diesel and B20 biodiesel. Average fuel use and emission rates increase monotonically versus engine manifold absolute pressure. A typical duty cycle includes loading at a cement plant, transit while loaded from the cement plant to work site, creeping in a queue of vehicles at the worksite, unloading, and transit without load from the site to the plant. For B20 versus petroleum diesel, there is no significant change in the rate of fuel use, CO₂ emissions, and NO emissions, and significant decreases in emissions for CO, hydrocarbons, and particulate matter. For loaded versus unloaded onroad travel, fuel use and CO₂ emissions rates are approximately 60% higher and the rates for other pollutants are approximately 30–50% higher. A substantial portion of cycle emissions occurred at the work site. Inter-vehicle and intra-cycle variability are also quantified using the micro-scale methodology.