La sous-traitance dans le transport routier de marchandises: les enseignements de l’enquête ECHO (2004)

Road haulage is nowadays the main transport mode in France, demonstrating its ability to fulfil shippers’ demands. Among other success factors, the possibility for large companies to subcontract to very small ones, with very low fixed costs and greater flexibility, is often quoted as a major advantage. The ECHO survey, conducted in France in 2004, gives information about 10000 shipments made by 3000 shippers. This survey allows the analysis of subcontracting, by following at every stage how each shipment is given to another carrier by contract. The analysis shows that some subcontracts are mainly cost driven, but others aim at using the specialised skills of a particular haulier. For every transport segment (single parcel delivery service, parcel delivery service, less than truck load, full truck load), subcontracting is described in terms of sizes of the companies involved, services provided and the reasons for subcontracting. These results describe the main features of several different types of subcontracts.     

Transport ferroviaire régional en Allemagne. L’exemple de la région de Leipzig

The German regional rail passenger transport (SPNV) is, eighteen years after the railway reform of 1993, a dynamic one. Over the last fifteen years, passengers have increased by +43% and trains.km by +28%. There are more than 30 railway operators. Tenders drive this dynamism and newcomer’s market share is approaching 25% in 2011 (in train.km). The Leipzig region, which has seen the birth of long-distance rail transport with the great line Leipzig-Dresden inspired by F. List (1834), participate in this revival: since 2010, two operators, DB Regio and Veolia, share regional rail services. What early lessons can be drawn for the reform of the French TER?     

An advanced theory of thin-walled girders with application to ship vibrations

The paper presents an outline of the advanced theory of thin-walled girders. The improvement includes shear influence on torsion as an extension of shear influence on bending. The analogy between bending and torsion is recognized and pointed out throughout the paper. Complete differential equations of coupled flexural and torsional vibrations for a prismatic girder are derived. In addition, the 8 d.o.f. beam finite element, utilizing the energy approach, is constituted with stiffness and mass matrices, and load vectors. The paper describes determining of geometrical properties of multi-cell open cross-sections by employing the strip element method. Numerical procedures for vibration analyses are outlined. Furthermore, dry natural vibrations of a VLCS (Very Large Container Ship) are analysed by 1D FEM model as a prerogative for hydroelastic analyses of these relatively flexible vessels. Influence of transverse bulkheads is taken into account by increasing torsional stiffness of the ship hull proportionally to their deformation energies. Validation of 1D FEM model is checked by correlation analysis with the vibration response of the fine 3D FEM model.     

Design of vehicle of on-glass 4×4 MIMO antennas for WiBro applications

This paper proposes on-glass 4×4 MIMO antennas with broad bandwidth and high radiation gain, suitable for receiving WiBro internet applications in a commercial sedan. For the individual antenna body, we used a triangular-shaped patch that most efficiently satisfies broad-matching bandwidth. Then the inside of the triangular patch was partially removed to broaden the driver’s field of view. To obtain detailed design parameters that exhibit optimum radiating performance, we used a genetic algorithm (GA) in conjunction with a full wave EM simulator and varied the feeding locations of four antennas so as to increase throughput capacity for effective data transmission. The proposed antenna showed ?10 dB matching bandwidth and a measured average gain of about 4.77 dBi along the bore-sight direction (θ = 90°, ? = 180°) in the entire WiBro band (2.3–2.4 GHz). To confirm the MIMO performance in a real situation, we measured the commercial WiBro signal using the proposed antennas in an urban environment. The correlation coefficients among the antennas were calculated, and the result revealed an average value of 0.105.     

A numerical study of stochastic larval settlement in the California Current system

Key to the predictive understanding of many nearshore marine ecosystems is the transport of larvae by ocean circulation processes. Many species release thousands to billions of larvae to develop in pelagic waters, but only a few lucky ones successfully settle to suitable habitat and recruit to adult life stages. Methodologies for predicting the larval dispersal are still primitive, and simple diffusive analyses are still used for many important applications. In this study, we investigate mechanisms of larval dispersal using idealized simulations of time-evolving coastal circulations in the California Current system with Lagrangian particles as models for planktonic larvae. Connectivity matrices, which describe the source-to-destination relationships for larval dispersal for a given larval development time course, are used to diagnose the time–space dynamics of larval settlement. The resulting connectivity matrices are shown to be a function of several important time scales, such as the planktonic larval duration, the frequency and duration of larval release events and inherent time scales for the coastal circulations. Many important fishery management applications require knowledge of fish stocks on a year-to-year or generation-to-generation basis. For these short time scales (typically less than 1 year), larval dispersal is generally far from a simple diffusive process and the consideration of the stochastic and episodic nature of larval dispersal is required. This work provides new insights into the spatial–temporal dynamics of nearshore fish stocks.     

Thermo-oxidative degradation of a carbon black compounded EPDM rubber hose

A method to measure the crosslink density of carbon black was used to analyze the aging behavior of a radiator hose made of carbon black filled EPDM (ethylene-propylene diene monomer) rubber under thermo-oxidative stresses. The crosslink density and the strength of the skin of the rubber specimens initially decreased slightly but then increased over time. The elongation at the break considerably reduced and did not show any similarity to the behaviors of the crosslink density. A possible cause of this reaction might be from the formation of rigid sulphoxide crosslinks and the crosslinks produced by the reaction of unvalcunized sulfurs. Aging the rubber specimens at 180°C caused a slight increase in the crosslink density and a large decrease in tensile strength and elongation. The aging experiment also caused a rapid increase of microhardness in the surface skin region. The formation of carbonyl groups in EPDM molecule chains and the formation of rigid sulphoxide crosslink, rather than the crosslink density variation, may have had a large influence. The changing behaviours of the mechanical properties, molecule chains and crosslinks showed significantly different characteristics in the skin and the interior with aging temperature and time.     

La diffusion du permis de conduire en France

Transportation has undergone extraordinary growth during the last century, and has continued to do so throughout the twenty-first century. The knowledge of mobility in France is partly based on National Travel Surveys. These surveys have been conducted on five occasions in France (1966–1967, 1973–1974, 1981–1982, 1993–1994 and 2007–2008), and have provided five photographies of the level of mobility for French households. The paper aims at analyzing the distribution of driving licenses amongst the French population during the past 40 years, and to study the inequality of access to driving licenses according to several socio-demographic criteria. The results emphasize, firstly, the increase in the number of driving license holders from among the elderly and a decrease for those under 25 years and, secondly, the reduction in gender inequalities, whilst these however continue to exist. The paper additionally highlights that the area of residence played a bigger role in 2007 compared to 1993.     

Effect of fuel metering on combustion and emissions of a PFI gasoline engine during fast startup under an HEV-like mode

In this paper, the transient conditions during fast startup are investigated to develop a fuel metering strategy under HEV-like mode. The fuel mixture preparation and its effects on the combustion are analyzed in detail. Specifically, the combustion in the first cycle is characterized under both conventional low-speed cranking startup and HEV-like fast startup modes. The test results show that the enhancement of cranking speed has marginal effects on mixture preparation in the first cycle. However, it prolongs the combustion duration and reduces HC emissions. The sensitivity of the fuel metering is evaluated for the initial cycles. The combustion in the 3rd ~ 5th cycles during startup is found to be fairly sensitive to the fuel metering due to the effects of transient fuel film vaporization. The fuel metering in the first cycle has the most significant effect on the combustion and emissions during fast startup. Optimized fuel metering in the first cycle shows effective reduction of HC emissions during fast startup process.     

Safety, security, the environment and shipping: The problem of making effective policies

This paper examines where problems of shipping policy jurisdiction between international, supra-national and national levels have occurred. These range across the issues of public goods — safety, security and environment— and show up inadequacies in the current shipping policy-making processes. New frameworks — commonly termed “polycentric governance” and “multi-level governance”— sensitive to the complexities of the maritime industry and its associated political structure urgently need to be adopted. The paper is based upon research work recently carried out across the European Union supported by a number of publications and will include examples from Greece, the United Kingdom, Spain, France and also the new member states. Suggestions for improvements in policy-making structures will be made and recommendations put forward for consideration by policy-makers in the maritime sector at all jurisdictional levels     

Th-derived particulate organic carbon fluxes in the northern Barents Sea with comparison to drifting sediment trap fluxes

Large-volume sampling of ²³⁴Th was conducted to estimate particulate organic carbon (POC) export in conjunction with drifting sediment trap deployments in the northern Barents Sea in July 2003 and May 2005. ²³⁴Th-derived POC fluxes averaged 42.3 ± 39.7 mmol C m^− 2 d^− 1 in 2003 and 47.1 ± 30.6 mmol C m^− 2 d^− 1 in 2005. Sediment trap POC fluxes averaged 13.1 ± 8.2 mmol C m^− 2 d^− 1 in 2003 and 17.3 ± 11.4 mmol C m^− 2 d^− 1 in 2005, but better reflected the transient bloom conditions that were observed at each station within a season. Although ²³⁴Th fluxes agreed within a factor 2 at most stations and depths sampled, sediment trap POC fluxes were lower than large-volume POC flux estimates at almost every station. This may represent an under-collection of POC by the drifting sediment traps or, conversely, an over-collection of POC by the large-volume sampling of ²³⁴Th. It is hypothesized that the offset between the two methods is partly due to the presence of the prymnesiophyte Phaeocystis pouchetii, which potentially causes a large variation in > 53-μm POC/²³⁴Th ratios. Due to the large proportion of dissolved carbon or mucilage released by P. pouchetii, and because it is thought that P. pouchetii does not contribute significantly to the vertical export of biogenic matter in the Barents Sea, the application of large-volume sampling of ²³⁴Th may yield relatively high, and possibly inaccurate POC/²³⁴Th ratios. Hence, POC fluxes derived from ²³⁴Th sampling may be inappropriate and drifting sediment traps might be a more reliable method to measure the vertical export of biogenic matter in regions that have recurrent P. pouchetii blooms, such as the Barents Sea.