Lifting Capability and Stress Analyses of the Crane System for a Large-Sized Tactical Wrecker

A large-sized tactical wrecker is a special-purpose vehicle that lifts and tows tactical vehicles and heavy loads. It consists of a crane, a post structure, outriggers and a suitable chassis truck, and during its initial design, the structural safety and tipping stability should be preemptively examined in terms of the layout of these components. This paper proposes computer-aided engineering (CAE) methods to evaluate the maximum lifting capacity of the wrecker and the structural safety of its crane during the initial design. The analytical model for the large-sized wrecker is constructed with 236 degrees of freedom by combining the crane system developed using the ADAMS macros with the dynamic model of large chassis truck with an axle suspension. The design parameters for the wrecker model that influence the tipping stability are selected, and then the maximum lifting loads with the corresponding changes are calculated. This parametric study shows that the characteristics of the boom and the layout of the outriggers greatly affect the maximum lifting capacity. Finite element (FE) analyses of the 1st stage boom and the 3rd stage boom show the stresses under the maximum overturning moment condition are within the allowable strength.     

The Decline of the Artisanal Fisheries in Mediterranean Coastal Areas: The Case of Cap de Creus (Cape Creus)

This article examines the sociocultural, economic, and environmental causes of the decline of the artisanal fisheries in the rocky coast of Cape Creus (NW Mediterranean) over the past decades. The changes that have occurred over time have favored trawlers, purse-seiners, shellfish fisheries, and tourism activities, to the detriment of artisanal fisheries. This article shows that the establishment of a marine reserve in 1998 could not reverse the observed decline in the artisanal fisheries. This raises the necessity of implementing a fishery management plan integrated into a coastal management plan, which should accompany the habitat protection. These plans could assist in the maintenance and the sustainable development of the artisanal fishing sector in Cape Creus as well as in other Mediterranean coastal areas where artisanal fisheries are also declining.     

Democratization of Coastal Zone Decision Making for Indigenous Australians: Insights from Stakeholder Analysis

Community participation has become something of an orthodoxy within natural resource management. In the absence of an explicit strategy for democratization and capacity-building the notion of community participation is potentially meaningless and its application likely to mask decisions made in the interests of elite groups. This article examines the shortcomings of participatory processes in coastal resource management and seeks to identify and overcome constraints to democratization and capacity-building for Indigenous Australians. Using two coastal catchments in Central Queensland as a case study, we explore relations of power among stakeholders using Stakeholder Analysis to provide a platform for more effective deliberative participation by this group of stakeholders. Discussion of the specific barriers to participation identified by Aboriginal stakeholders will demonstrate the need to adopt notions of capacity-building that focus not only on the attributes of the individual stakeholder that might facilitate their participation, but on the characteristics also of the decision-making environment.     

Analysis of automotive disc brake squeal considering damping and design modifications for pads and a disc

The squeal noise occurring from the disc brakes of passenger cars has been analyzed by using the complex eigenvalue method numerically. The contact between a disc and two pads was analytically modeled as many linear springs and dampers in an effort to develop the improved equation of motion derived on the basis of Lagrange’s equation and the assumed mode method. The finite element modal analysis results for disc brake components constitute an eigenvalue matrix in the analytical equation of motion. The complex eigenvalue analyses based on the equations of motion are able to examine the dynamic instability of a brake system, which is an onset of squeal, by considering the disc rotational effect. Numerical analyses showed that the modes unstable in an undamped analysis became stable in a damped case, which illustrates the important effect of damping on the squeal instability in a brake squeal simulation. Then several modified brake models were suggested and investigated how effectively they suppressed the occurrence of squeal noise. The brake parts such as a pad chamfer and a disc vane were modified and the influence of pad chamfer and vane shapes on squeal occurrence was proved to be significant. The numerical results showed that proper structural modification of a disc brake system can suppress the brake squeal to some extent.     

Vehicle distance estimation using a mono-camera for FCW/AEB systems

For robust vision-based forward collision warning (FCW) and autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems, not only reliable detection performance including high detection rate and low false positives but also accurate measurement output of a target vehicle is required. Especially, in order to reduce false alarm or activation of FCW/AEB systems, the systems require the precise measurement output of a target object, such as position, velocity, acceleration, and time-to-collision (TTC). In this study, we developed a measurement estimation algorithm of a target vehicle using a monocular camera. This method estimates two cases of vehicle widths for a target vehicle by using the detected lane information and a pin-hole camera model. After that, the position, velocity, acceleration, and TTC of a target vehicle are estimated by using a Kalman filter for the each estimated vehicle width. To improve robustness, the both estimation results using the detected lane information and the pinhole camera model are fused. This estimation algorithm was evaluated and compared with the state-of-the-art technology. As a result, the proposed measurement output estimation method can improve the performance of the FCW/AEB systems.     

Ontology-based approach for legal provision retrieval

In this paper, we present an ontology-based approach for legal provision retrieval. The approach aims at assisting the man who knows little about legal knowledge to inquire appropriate provisions. Legal ontology and legal concept probability model are main functional components in our approach. Legal ontology is extracted from Chinese laws by the natural language processing (NLP) techniques. Legal concept probability model is built from corpus, and the model is used to bridge the gap between legal ontology and natural language inquiries.     

Developing a comprehensive programme for improving shipboard energy efficiency

This article identifies a set of fuel saving strategies designed to meet the needs of vessel owners and operators, and describes how the strategies can be combined into a comprehensive programme. The strategies are developed from over sixty potential fuel saving measures grouped on the basis of commonness of purpose and interdependency. These criteria reflect the finding that implementing certain strategies is a prerequisite to the success of other strategies, and the success of some strategies generates a need to implement other strategies. Operational strategies identified include: developing crew motivation for active participation in energy efficiency improvement programmes; altering ship speeds; reducing auxiliary load on main propulsion plant; improved matching of ship capacities and cargo volume; reducing miles traveled; and maximizing use of electronic navigation and communications aids. Physical plant modification strategies identified include: optimizing for reduced ship speeds; fuel switching, blending and modifying; hydrodynamic improvements to the hull and propeller; and improving thrust.     

Mining evolving association rules for e-business recommendation

Association analysis is an effective data mining approach capable of unveiling interesting associations within a large dataset. Although widely adopted in e-business areas, it still has many difficulties when applied in practice. For instance, there is a mismatch between the static rules discovered and the drifting nature of the user interests, and it is difficult to detect associations from a huge volume of raw user data. This paper presents an effective approach to mine evolving association rules in order to tackle these problems. It is followed by a recommendation model based on the evolving association rules unveiled. Experimental results on an online toggery show that it can effectively unveil people’s shifting interests and make better recommendations accordingly.     

Future electricity demand from battery‐powered vehicles

An important decision faced by airline schedulers is how to adapt the flight schedule and aircraft assignment to unforeseen perturbations in an established schedule. In the face of unforeseen aircraft delays, schedulers have to decide which flights to delay, and when delays become excessive, which to cancel. Current scheduling models deal with simple decision problems of delay or cancellation, but not with both simultaneously. But in practice the optimal decision may involve results from the integration of both flight cancellations and delays. In Part I of this paper, a quadratic programming model for the integration decision problem is given. The model can formulate the integration of flight cancellations and delays as well as some special cases, such as the ferrying of surplus aircraft and the possibility of swapping different types of aircraft. In this paper, based on the special structure of the model, an effective algorithm is presented, sufficient computational experiments are conducted and some results are reported. These show that we can expect to obtain a sufficiently good solution in terms of reasonable CPU time.     

Effects of Injection Timing on Transient Performance of A Regulated Two-Stage Turbocharged Diesel Engine with Turbine Bypass Valve

The object of this paper is to reduce soot emissions under typical 5s transient conditions of constant speed and increasing torque. And effects of fuel injection timing on combustion and emissions parameters were experimentally and numerically studied in a regulated two-stage turbocharged diesel engine with a turbine bypass valve (TBV). The test results indicated that: the smaller TBV opening could improve deterioration of smoke emissions and BSFC at medium and heavy loads. Afterward, the full-stage injection timing (FSIT) strategies (delaying injection timing during the entire transient process) could reduce soot and NO_X emissions simultaneously. However, when TBV opening became larger, smoke emissions and BSFC were deteriorated gradually. Moreover, the sectional-stage injection timing (SSIT) strategies (advancing injection timing from 10 % load to a preset load and delaying injection timing from the preset load to 100 % load) could markedly reduce soot emissions by 75.8 % with TBV opening 20 %; the degradation of fuel consumption could be effectively suppressed. Finally, coupling the SSIT strategies with the TBV control strategies could significantly improve the transient performance.