An investigation into the existence of a two-tier spot freight market for crude oil carriers

Developments in environmental legislation have exercised increased pressure on the tanker sector to improve its quality. To date, the most influential and, indisputably, the most controversial piece of legislation against oil pollution is the U.S. Oil Pollution Act that was introduced in 1990. This paper attempts an empirical examination of the effects of these developments in the spot freight market. Using a database of Worldscale fixtures over a period of four and a half years, a series of statistical tests was performed with the aim of detecting the existence of any premium paid for vessels of lower age, double hull construction, or trading to the U.S.A. The results were mixed, indicating in several cases some form of premia for US.-bound vessels, but less evidence of premia for lower age and better hull construction.     

Dealing with congestion from a regional perspective The case of Massachusetts

Traffic congestion has received considerable public and media attention over the past several years. However, many of the transportation and land use actions offered to deal with the congestion phenomenon focus only on a specific site or at most a subregion of the metropolitan area. This paper argues that congestion in many cases is an areawide phenomenon requiring consideration from a regional and programmatic viewpoint. A ten-point congestion-relief program developed for eastern Massachusetts is described. Actions in this program included those aimed to mitigate current congestion and avoid future congestion through land use management. Four policy areas are emphasized - providing transportation system improvements, managing transportation demand, managing land use, and managing the institutional and funding framework. The paper concludes that because of the political nature of the congestion problem, the congestion-relief program's importance lies more in the message it sends to the public that programmatic action is being taken. The paper also concludes that a regional approach is necessary thus requiring close examination of existing institutions, that demand management is an important component of the strategy, that the private sector has an important role to play, and that the long-term effectiveness of the program relates to the success of attempts to institutionalize efforts into zoning and permit procedures.     

Creating synthetic baseline populations

To develop activity-based travel models using microsimulation, individual travelers and households must be considered. Methods for creating baseline synthetic populations of households and persons using 1990 census data are given. Summary tables from the Census Bureau STF-3A are used in conjunction with the Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), and Iterative Proportional Fitting (IPF) is applied to estimate the proportion of households in a block group or census tract with a desired combination of demographics. Households are generated by selection of households from the associated PUMS according to these proportions. The tables of demographic proportions which are exploited here to make household selections from the PUMS may be used in traditional modeling. The procedures are validated by creating pseudo census tracts from PUMS samples and considering the joint distribution of the size of households and the number of vehicles in the households. It is shown that the joint distributions created by these methods do not differ substantially from the true values. Additionally the effects of small changes in the procedure, such as imputation of additional demographics and adding partial counts to the constructed demographic tables are discussed in the paper.     

Enhanced bus operations: The Curitiba model and its applicability to China

Buses will remain the backbone of public transport systems for some time to come because of their lower cost and higher flexibility in relation to rail transport. However, buses are perceived as being an inferior mode of public transport and do not offer as much carrying capacity as rail transport. Following the Curitiba model, this paper looks at the potential for transferring some of the key advantages of rail transport to bus operations. This involves transforming bus stops into enclosed stations, with ticket purchase and/or checking in the station and at‐grade access to vehicles. It also involves the extensive use of bus lanes. The potential contribution of transport telematics is looked at, in particular the use of smartcards for payment in a closed fare system. The potential role of the Curitiba model for China is assessed in the context of toll road construction.     

氟硅橡胶在汽车涡轮增压器软管衬里中的应用

燃料价格在短期内的上涨和全球有限的石油供应造成的长期威胁正在影响着汽车行业的发展趋势,因此急需寻找能够进一步提高燃油效率、降低废气排放的技术。消费者对汽油价格的担忧以及对于汽车尾气对环境影响的日益关注,推动着世界各地的汽车研究人员不断研发矿物燃料的替代品,如     

采埃孚萨克斯驶向平稳发展之道

德国采埃孚萨克斯(ZF Sachs)公司正在一个平稳快速的发展轨道上,双质量飞轮(DMFs)是其最具创新性的产品之一,它提高了多款车型的行驶平稳性.     

汽车底盘系统零件的振动性能优化技术

汽车振动性能的优化要求对悬架系统的单个零件进行分析,同时考虑它们在振动系统中的相互作用。这一工作的最大挑战在于如何建立简单有效的动力学模型,以便获得用于对零件的性能要求进行详细定义的足够数据。     

International cooperation in Maritime casualty Investigations: an analysis of IMO RESOLUTION A.637 (1 6)

On 19 October 1989, the International Maritime Organization adopted a joint uslliberian resolution meant to advance international cooperation in maritime casualty investigations. This resolution reflected an international determination to achieve greater cooperation between different states in investigative matters, in a manner consistent with international law. This paper examines how the IMO resolution addresses some of the inherent problems in such a multi-national industry. It also examines the question of whether us lawmakers may, or should, impose stricter controls and restrictions unilaterally on foreign-flag ships which call on us ports.     

An experimental/numerical approach for evaluating skin friction on full-scale ships with surface roughness

For an accurate evaluation of the increase in skin friction due to various surface topographies on ships, i.e. plate roughness, coatings, or bio fouling, both experimental measurements and a numerical evaluation of those measurements are necessary. The measurements are necessary as no other practical method exists to evaluate the skin friction coefficient on most surface topographies, and numerical evaluation is required to compute the roughness effects of varying ship types and speeds. Therefore, a method for measuring the skin friction coefficient for bio-fouled and structured surfaces at full-scale friction velocity is presented, and a validation of the design and measuring procedures is given. For the ship frictional resistance calculations, the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code ShipFlow has been modified to take the added friction into account.