Competitiveness of container terminal operating companies in South Korea and the industry–university–government network

Burgeoning container port facilities have fostered intensified competition among container terminal operating companies (CTOCs). However, despite research into their survival strategies which identified antecedents of competitiveness including hard factors such as facilities, available cargo and cargo processing ability, softer factors spanning human resource management, networks and strategic alliances with universities and government agencies in industry–university–government (I–U–G) networks have been overlooked. This study aims to examine both hard and softer antecedents of competitiveness as perceived by 152 professionals in South Korean CTOCs; empirical relationships among these antecedents, I–U–G networks, and competitiveness itself; and the significance of the I–U–G network in establishing and improving competitiveness. Posited antecedents of competitiveness included human resources, facilities, service quality, customer orientation, reputation, and government support policy as independent variables; the I–U–G network as a moderating variable; and competitiveness as a dependent variable. Empirical structural relationships revealed that excepting government support policy, each variable significantly affected CTOC competitiveness. Further, the I–U–G network moderated the relationships between the antecedents of competitiveness and competitiveness. Because an effective I–U–G network was pivotal in controlling CTOC competitiveness, improved competitiveness requires not only differentiation of human resources, facilities, service quality, customer orientation, and reputation factors but also I–U–G network developments.     

Controller design for gating traffic control in presence of time-delay in urban road networks

Recent studies demonstrated the efficiency of feedback-based gating control in mitigating congestion in urban networks by exploiting the notion of macroscopic or network fundamental diagram (MFD or NFD). The employed feedback regulator of proportional-integral (PI)-type targets an operating NFD point of maximum throughput to enhance the mobility in the urban road network during the peak period, under saturated traffic conditions. In previous studies, gating was applied directly at the border of the protected network (PN), i.e. the network part to be protected from over-saturation. In this work, the recently developed feedback-based gating concept is applied at junctions located further upstream of the PN. This induces a time-delay, which corresponds to the travel time needed for gated vehicles to approach the PN. The resulting extended feedback control problem can be also tackled by use of a PI-type regulator, albeit with different gain values compared to the case without time-delay. Detailed procedures regarding the appropriate design of related feedback regulators are provided. In addition, the developed feedback concept is shown to work properly with very long time-steps as well. A large part of the Chania, Greece, urban network, modelled in a microscopic simulation environment under realistic traffic conditions, is used as test-bed in this study. The reported results demonstrate a stable and efficient behaviour and improved mobility of the overall network in terms of mean speed and travel time.     

Evaluating determinants of attractiveness and their cause-effect relationships for container ports in Taiwan: users’ perspectives

The attractiveness of ports is usually a pre-requisite and necessary condition for ports to achieve competitiveness, as well as the springboard to explore the competitive advantages of ports. To determine whether a port is competitive, it is necessary to explore whether it boasts certain factors that make the port attractive to users. The main purpose of this article is to apply the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique to evaluate key determinants of attractiveness and their cause/effect relationships for container ports in Taiwan. The empirical results showed that: (1) Top six determinates of attractiveness for container ports are ‘ample cargo sources,’ ‘favorable port charges,’ ‘dense ship network and routes,’ ‘low transshipment costs,’ ‘efficient wharf operations,’ and ‘adequate wharfs and back-line land,’ respectively. (2) Among the above six determinants of attractiveness, ‘ample cargo sources’ is the cause determinant. Three determinants of port attractiveness, ‘favorable port charges,’ ‘dense ship network and routes,’ ‘low transshipment costs,’ which are the effect determinants. They are affected by the determinants of attractiveness of ‘ample cargo sources’. In addition, this study discusses the above findings and expects to provide the study results to Taiwan’s port authorities for reference.     

基于光纤传感系统的德国列车实时精确定位技术

实时、精确地获取列车位置信息是保证列车安全有效运行、发挥效率、提供最佳服务的前提。而轨旁传感器将在进行高效、可靠的列车跟踪和定位方面发挥重要作用。文章介绍德国基于光纤传感系统的列车实时精确定位技术,这是一种全新的解决方案,具有独特的优势和可能性。     

基于深度强化学习的智能船舶航迹跟踪控制

[目的]智能船舶的航迹跟踪控制问题往往面临着控制环境复杂、控制器稳定性不高以及大量的算法计算等问题。为实现对航迹跟踪的精准控制,提出一种引入深度强化学习技术的航向控制器。[方法]首先,结合视线(LOS)算法制导,以船舶的操纵特性和控制要求为基础,将航迹跟踪问题建模成马尔可夫决策过程,设计其状态空间、动作空间、奖励函数;然后,使用深度确定性策略梯度(DDPG)算法作为控制器的实现,采用离线学习方法对控制器进行训练;最后,将训练完成的控制器与BP-PID控制器进行对比研究,分析控制效果。[结果]仿真结果表明,设计的深度强化学习控制器可以从训练学习过程中快速收敛达到控制要求,训练后的网络与BP-PID控制器相比跟踪迅速,具有偏航误差小、舵角变化频率小等优点。[结论]研究成果可为智能船舶航迹跟踪控制提供参考。     

Analysis of cross effect on inherent deformation during the line heating process – Part 1 – Single crossed heating lines

This paper describes the effect of previous heating on inherent deformation by a subsequent heating line, more specifically, the case of two heating lines intersecting (crossing) each other. The paper has been divided into two parts. In the first part, the case of single crossed heating lines is studied in detail. The second part of the paper, discusses the case of more than one crossed heating lines. The novelty of the work lies in revealing the cross effect and how, factors such as, for example, the heating condition and the plate geometry, influence the resulting inherent deformation of crossed heating. In addition, relationships to easily get these influences are provided. The results are suitable for a wide range of heating conditions and plate thickness.     

Hydroelastic analysis of oblique irregular waves with a pontoon-type VLFS edged with dual inclined perforated plates

The fluid-structure interaction of oblique irregular waves with a pontoon-type very large floating structure (VLFS) edged with dual horizontal/inclined perforated plates has been investigated in the context of the direct time domain modal expansion theory. For the hydroelastic analysis, the boundary element method (BEM) based on time domain Kelvin sources is implemented to establish water wave model including the viscous effect of the perforated plates through the Darcy’s law, and the finite element method (FEM) is adopted for solving the deflections of the VLFS modeled as an equivalent Mindlin thick plate. In order to enhance the computing efficiency, the interpolation-tabulation scheme is applied to assess rapidly and accurately the free-surface Green function and its partial derivatives in finite water depth, and the boundary integral equation of a half or quarter VLFS model is further established taking advantage of symmetry of flow field and structure. Also, the numerical solutions are validated against a series of experimental tests. In the comparison, the empirical relationship between the actual porosity and porous parameter is successfully applied. Numerical solutions and model tests are executed to determine the hydroelastic response characteristics of VLFS with an attached anti-motion device. This study examines the effects of porosity, submerged depth, inclined angle and gap distance of such dual perforated anti-motion plates on the hydroelastic response to provide information regarding the optimal design. The effects of oblique wave angle on the performance of anti-motion and hydroelastic behavior of VLFS are also emphatically examined.     

Socially optimal electric driving range of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

This study determines the optimal electric driving range of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) that minimizes the daily cost borne by the society when using this technology. An optimization framework is developed and applied to datasets representing the US market. Results indicate that the optimal range is 16 miles with an average social cost of $3.19 per day when exclusively charging at home, compared to $3.27 per day of driving a conventional vehicle. The optimal range is found to be sensitive to the cost of battery packs and the price of gasoline. When workplace charging is available, the optimal electric driving range surprisingly increases from 16 to 22 miles, as larger batteries would allow drivers to better take advantage of the charging opportunities to achieve longer electrified travel distances, yielding social cost savings. If workplace charging is available, the optimal density is to deploy a workplace charger for every 3.66 vehicles. Moreover, the diversification of the battery size, i.e., introducing a pair and triple of electric driving ranges to the market, could further decrease the average societal cost per PHEV by 7.45% and 11.5% respectively.     

基于时延特性建模的多断面短时交通流预测

针对现有交通流预测方法未充分考虑多断面车流演变规律，提出基于时延特性建模的时空相关性计算方法. 该方法采用对不同断面、不同时刻交通流的分布相似性度量，对输入的车辆到达数据序列进行切割构建时空相似度矩阵，得到相邻断面之间的时延参数. 基于时延特性建模，将多断面之间的流量信息进行融合，使用长短时记忆(LSTM)网络进行流量预测. 通过对实际路段数据的预测和结果分析，验证所提方法的有效性和实用性.     

500米长轨营业线火车市场运费与概预算编制办法计算运费对比分析

随着《铁路基本建设项目投资管理办法》(铁总计统〔2017〕179号)及《关于铁路建设项目清理概算工作的通知》(发改投资电〔2019〕1号)文的出台,标志着铁路建设项目概算清理工作,将逐步交由建设单位按照不突破初步设计批复金额进行处理,因此初步设计阶段如何确保招标预算金额的准确性,体现的越来越为重要,本文通过对500米长轨营业线火车市场运费与编制办法计算运费的分析,量化两者费用存在的差异,列明差异原因,并提出相关建议。