Port strategic planning: Canadian port reform

Recent port reform established major commercial ports as Canadian Port Authorities (CPAs) as federal non-profit, business corporations. Canadian port reform was aimed at allowing CPAs to compete effectively. Canada's major ports operate in an increasingly competitive business environment. To gain advantage over their competition, Canadian ports must develop business strategies dealing with their organizational cultures, institutional structures, operations, and facility provision. Developing appropriate strategies involves creating a strategic plan that considers external and internal port environments. This paper outlines the evolution of strategic planning and its applicability to Canadian ports. The initial literature review is followed by a brief review of Canadian port reform and an analysis of external and internal port environments. This analysis determines the resources available to exploit external opportunities and defend against threats, and considers the internal strengths and weaknesses of Canadian ports. A list of strategic issues facing Canadian ports and how the Canada Marine Act affected them is derived from the analysis.     

Numerical analysis of crack under compression by 3D displacement discontinuity method

A 3D displacement discontinuity method is applied to solve the fracture mechanics problems of the mixed mode crack under compression. Friction between the surface of the closed crack is considered by establishing a simple and efficient iterative algorithm based on method of contact resistance mitigation. On the surfaces of the closed crack, the Mohr-coulomb rule is satisfied by iteration when the crack is in condition of sliding. The stress intensity factors are obtained using displacement fitting method. It is shown that the numerical results agree with the experimental results well and that friction plays an important role in resisting crack propagation.     

Experimental study on the liquid slug of cryogenic slug flow in inclined tubes

An experimental study was carried out to understand the phenomena of the boiling flow of liquid nitrogen in inclined tubes with closed bottom by using a high speed motion analyzer.The experimental tubes are 0.018 and 0.014 m inner diameter(ID) and 1.0 m in length.The range of the inclination angle is 45°-90° from the horizontal.The experimental observation on the liquid slug was carried out along the tubes.Statistical method was employed to analyze the experimental data.The experiment analyzed the influences of the inclination angle and the tube diameter on the liquid slug length and velocity.The results show the liquid slug propagation velocity increases with the decrease of inclination angle θ.For all cases,the maximum values of the mean liquid slug lengths were obtained at θ = 60°.The mean liquid slug lengths were greater for large tube at higher tube position.These conclusions provide a basis for further study liquid slug of cryogenic two-phase undeveloped slug flow.     

“Turn on the radio,bust out a song”: the experience of driving to work

Though driving to and from work has become a prevalent experience in the lives of individuals in every metropolitan region in the US, much remains to be learned about the activity from the perspective of the drivers. To increase our understanding of the motivation for certain travel behaviors, we must first know something about what those drivers experience. The existing literature explains much, but the application of new methodologies could improve our ability to explain the willingness of individuals to choose to drive through increasingly congested road networks. The results of this study of oral histories of 12 women commuters underscore the idea that commute should be seen as a set of subjective behaviors that contradict some existing assumptions about why individuals commute.     

Threshold controlled scheme of difference expansion techniques for reversible watermarking

Since Tian Jun proposed the difference expansion embedding technique, based on which, many reversible watermarking techniques were proposed. However, these methods do not perform well when the payload is high. In this paper, we proposed an expandable difference threshold controlled scheme for these three methods. Experiments show that our scheme improves the performance of these three methods for heavy payload.     

Why are work travel plans effective? Comparing conclusions from narrative and meta-analytical research synthesis

Reliable research synthesis is of high significance for a transport policy which tries to base its decisions on available empirical evidence. There is growing doubt whether the frequently used narrative approach provides a scientifically defensible way of synthesising a body of quantitative research results. The present paper demonstrates meta-analysis as a more objective and powerful alternative for this task. For this purpose evaluation data synthesised in two earlier narrative reviews on the effectiveness of work travel plans [Cairns et al. Making travel plans work: research report (former), Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR), London, 2002; Smarter choices—changing the way we travel. (Final report of the research project: The influence of soft factor interventions on travel demand. Research report for the Department for Transport.) London. Retrieved 1 December 2005, from , 2004] are meta-analytically re-analysed and compared with the conclusions drawn from the narrative synthesis of these data. Our meta-analyis provides only limited support for the conclusion that addressing parking is the hallmark of successful work travel plans. Our meta-analysis indicates that site and organisational factors as well as characteristics of the monitoring process are significant predictors of effective work travel plans, whereas Cairns et al. view little evidence for the impact of these factors.     

Guidelines for samplers: measuring a change in behaviour from before and after surveys

This paper addresses the issue of using before and after surveys to evaluate behavioural changes in response to transport policies and investments, a procedure that, we argue is done far too rarely in this profession. Further, it demonstrates very clearly that, in almost all conceivable cases, there are considerable economies to be obtained by using a panel (again, under-utilised in our profession) to undertake evaluation, rather than successive independent cross-sectional surveys. The paper also addresses the critical issue of sample size requirements for measuring changes of a relatively small magnitude in travel behaviour; i.e., to state, with 95% confidence, that if there is a ∂ percent change in behaviour for the sample, there is a ∂ percent ± e percent change in the behaviour of the population, where e is the sampling error. In this paper, we present a method for calculating such sample size requirements from first principles and demonstrate the applicability both hypothetically and then empirically using data from the Puget Sound Transportation Panel. The formulation enables designers of before and after surveys to investigate the trade-offs between the statistical accuracy of their predictions and the sample size requirements systematically, without the need to specify ∂ a priori. This latter point is crucial, we argue, because we have limited information on ∂, yet, as we explain here, it drives the sample size requirements using alternative, well-cited approaches for calculating sample sizes to assess behavioural change. The results have important ramifications both for those implementing transport policies intended to produce behavioural change, especially when a cost-benefit evaluation of the policy is desired, and for those interpreting the results reported in previous studies.     

Influences on bicycle use

A stated preference experiment was performed in Edmonton in Canada to both examine the nature of various influences on bicycle use and obtain ratios among parameter values to be used in the development of a larger simulation of household travel behaviour. A total of 1128 questionnaires were completed and returned by current cyclists. Each questionnaire presented a pair of possible bicycle use alternatives and asked which was preferred for travel to a hypothetical all-day meeting or gathering (business or social). Alternatives were described by specifying the amounts of time spent on three different types of cycling facility and whether or not showers and/or secure bicycle parking were available at the destination. Indications of socio-economic character and levels of experience and comfort regarding cycling were also collected. The observations thus obtained were used to estimate the parameter values for a range of different utility functions in logit models representing this choice behaviour. The results indicate, among other things, that time spent cycling in mixed traffic is more onerous than time spent cycling on bike lanes or bike paths; that secure parking is more important than showers at the destination; and that cycling times on roadways tend to become less onerous as level of experience increases. Some of these results are novel and others are consistent with findings regarding bicycle use in work done by others, which is seen to add credence to this work. A review of previous findings concerning influences on cycling behaviour is also included.     

台湾海底隧道之接头与管段变化研析及对策

台湾唯一之海底隧道系采沉埋方式施工,该隧道不仅处于具高度盐份腐蚀之不利环境,且位于软弱地盘上.于营运二十余年后,轻微异状已有显现,如管段接头锈蚀、管体渗漏及管体裂损等异状.上述异状可能为接头构件变形、管体变位/变形及结构劣化等影响隧道安全之前兆,甚至降低其耐震能力;因该隧道肩负港区及区域经济发展之运输重任,如何藉由整体性体检进行安全评估及研订适当之维护补强对策,为计划执行重点;故本文将说明隧道接头、结构体等隧道重要构件之检测调查(如地球物理、钢筋腐蚀、裂缝深度、氯离子试验、防蚀电位、接头防水等项目)、数值分析及自动化监测(接缝计、单元沉陷仪、结构倾斜仪、电位计等)等综合评估结果及维护补强对策,以提供工程界日后参考.