Compliance with MARPOL Annex VI regulation 14 by ships in the Gulf of Guinea sub-region: Issues,challenges and opportunities

The negative environmental and health impacts association with high sulphur dioxide emissions from shipboard machineries have been raised by various stakeholders within the marine transportation sector. It is against this backdrop that the International Maritime Organisation under the MARPOL Annex VI regulation 14 has capped sulphur emission to 0.1% for Sulphur Emission Control Areas and 0.5% for the other shipping nations. However, ship owners in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) sub-region are facing multitudes of challenges in meeting up with this new IMO regulation. This paper aims to identify the main barriers hampering effective compliance to this new regulation by ships operating in the GoG, rank the barriers, and then discuss the possible opportunities that may arise as a result of addressing the challenges. To identify the main barriers, experts with several years of experience in the maritime industry from Ghana and Cameroun were used while multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method combining analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) was employed to rank the barriers. Other methods such as fuzzy AHP (FAHP), rank-order centroid (ROC) and TOPSIS were combined to validate the result of the study. The findings indicate that lack of infrastructure, lack of comprehensive marine air pollution laws and high capital and operational costs of sulphur reduction solutions emerged as the top three ranked barriers. The findings of this study can be useful to ship owners and policy makers in dealing with the issues of marine air pollution.     

Adoption of alternative fuel vehicles: Influence from neighbors,family and coworkers

During the last years, many governments have set targets for increasing the share of biofuels in the transportation sector. Understanding consumer behavior is essential in designing policies that efficiently increase the uptake of cleaner technologies. In this paper we analyze adopters and non-adopters of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs). We use diffusion of innovation theory and the established notion that the social system and interpersonal influence play important roles in adoption. Based on a nationwide database of car owners we analyze interpersonal influence on adoption from three social domains: neighbors, family and coworkers. The results point primarily at a neighbor effect in that AFV adoption is more likely if neighbors also have adopted. The results also point at significant effects of interpersonal influence from coworkers and family members but these effects weaken or disappear when income, education level, marriage, age, gender and green party votes are controlled for. The results extend the diffusion of innovation and AFV literature with empirical support for interpersonal influence based on objective data where response bias is not a factor. Implications for further research, environmental and transport policy, and practitioners are discussed.     

Congestion and pollution consequences of driving-to-school trips: A case study in Beijing

Parents compete for high-quality education for their children by enrolling them in good schools. However, in a Chinese mega-city like Beijing, three factors jointly lead to the spatial separation between schools and homes: the centralized public goods provision mechanism, the historical dependency in school location, and the constrained supply of housing in downtown. Without an adequate number of school buses, this spatial separation of schools and homes triggers the numerous long-distance driving-to-school trips by private vehicle during workday morning rush hours in Beijing. We use the start and end dates of “school holiday” as exogenous repeated shocks to the aggregate traffic congestion, and employ the two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression approach to examine the congestion and pollution consequences of such driving-to-school trips in Beijing. We find that, all else being equal, workdays during school holidays have a traffic congestion index 20% lower than that of non-school-holiday workdays. Such a sharp reduction in congestion leads to a significant decrease in PM₁₀ concentration. Policymakers should lower such “extra” congestion and environmental costs via optimizing the spatial balance between school supply and demand.     

港珠澳大桥建设对珠三角地区物流业的影响

港珠澳大桥将改变珠江口东西两岸之间的空间运输联系方式,从而改变整个珠三角地区的物流格局.从珠三角地区城市空间布局结构、产业特点出发,总结珠三角地区物流业特点,对港珠澳大桥影响珠三角物流格局的途径进行介绍；并逐一分析港珠澳大桥建成后对香港、深圳、珠海等珠三角主要城市物流业的不同影响.     

朔黄铁路POC语音调度系统服务质量测试方法研究

POC语音调度系统在朔黄铁路运营生产中发挥了重要作用,本文为朔黄POC语音调度系统设计了一种语音服务质量评价指标体系,并详细描述了各指标的计算公式和测试方法,为朔黄铁路LTE系统服务质量检测评价提供指导和支撑。     

基于虚拟化云技术的路局中心地震预警监测系统方案及联动研究

通过研究铁路地震预警监测系统现状和建设趋势,从资源共享、重复性建设、地震联动触发信号系统停车、牵引供电系统断电等多角度分析存在的问题,结合实际需求,提出铁路局中心系统采用虚拟化云技术的建设思路,并提出地震预警监测系统通过路局中心系统与信号RBC、牵引供电中心接口的联动触发策略。文中论述了采用虚拟化云技术搭建的地震预警监测铁路局中心系统功能、系统构成、硬件配置,从而解决各条铁路接入路局中心增加大量服务器等所带来的资源浪费严重、重复性建设等问题,为建设项目节省投资;阐述了通过路局中心系统与信号RBC、牵引供电中心接口的联动触发方案,为安全提供保障的同时尽可能节省建设投资和维护成本,更好地为铁路安全保驾护航。     

散粮输送工艺设备分析

通过对散粮输送行业中常见的工艺设备进行探究,分析设备运行过程中可能存在的问题,提出合理的解决方案,为散粮系统工艺设计及工程运行提供重要参考意义。     

A design method of tensile triangles and low transformation temperature weld metal for reduction of stress concentration and residual stress of welded joints

Stress concentration and residual stress have a significant influence on fatigue life of welded joints. In order to reduce the stress concentration of welded joints, a mathematical design method of tensile triangles (MTT) based on bionics was applied to weld shape design. Accordingly, the stress concentration of various weld beads in the corner boxing welded joint and the fillet welded T-joint was dissected using our in-house FEM software JWRIAN. It was found that there existed a large stress concentration in the conventional welded joints, whereas those welded joints with elongated weld bead were accompanied by a lower stress concentration, especially for elongated weld bead with MTT design. Furthermore, among the weld shapes of the corner boxing fillet welded joint, the rectangle shape of weld bead had the minimum stress concentration factor (1.05). For the fillet welded T-joint with MTT design, the stress concentration of weld toe decreased dramatically with the increase of the index of designed shape, but there was a minor difference of stress concentration at weld root between the weld beads with MTT design. In addition, application of low transformation temperature (LTT) weld metal utilizing martensitic transformation to the fillet welded T-joints can produce compressive residual stress at weld toe.     

浅谈信号系统侧冲防护在城市轨道交通中的应用

防侧面冲突是信号系统最基本的安全功能之一,城市轨道交通信号系统如何在兼顾安全与效率的前提下进行侧冲防护,对整个信号系统的设计尤为重要.本文重点介绍了侧冲防护的原则及其防护原理.     

基于CFD的中低速Wigley船模黏性阻力

船舶阻力性能对船型参数的确定、船体结构的设计有重要影响。本文以Wigley船模为研究对象，采用CFD方法建立了行船阻力分析系统，以实际海况数据为依据，确定较准确的参数和边界条件，分析了不同航速（傅汝德数）下的低速行船阻力，并与理论公式对比分析。仿真测试结果表明：在实际海况数据下，CFD数值模拟阻力与理论ITTC公式计算的阻力误差在2%以内且发展趋势一致。本文的研究为采用CFD研究行船阻力奠定基础。