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.     

Large-scale dynamic transportation network simulation: A space-time-event parallel computing approach

This paper describes a computationally efficient parallel-computing framework for mesoscopic transportation simulation on large-scale networks. By introducing an overall data structure for mesoscopic dynamic transportation simulation, we discuss a set of implementation issues for enabling flexible parallel computing on a multi-core shared memory architecture. First, we embed an event-based simulation logic to implement a simplified kinematic wave model and reduce simulation overhead. Second, we present a space-time-event computing framework to decompose simulation steps to reduce communication overhead in parallel execution and an OpenMP-based space-time-processor implementation method that is used to automate task partition tasks. According to the spatial and temporal attributes, various types of simulation events are mapped to independent logical processes that can concurrently execute their procedures while maintaining good load balance. We propose a synchronous space-parallel simulation strategy to dynamically assign the logical processes to different threads. The proposed method is then applied to simulate large-scale, real-world networks to examine the computational efficiency under different numbers of CPU threads. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the implemented parallel computing algorithm can significantly improve the computational efficiency and it can reach up to a speedup of 10 on a workstation with 32 computing threads.     

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.     

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.     

CACC车头时距与混合交通流稳定性的解析关系

研究协同自适应巡航控制(Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control，CACC)车头时距对不同CACC比例下混合交通流稳定性的影响关系，进而为CACC车头时距设计提供参考. 应用优化速度模型(Optimal Velocity Model，OVM)作为手动车辆的跟驰模型，PATH真车实验标定的模型作为CACC车辆的跟驰模型. 基于传递函数理论，推导混合交通流稳定性判别条件，计算关于CACC比例与平衡态速度的混合交通流稳定域. 分析混合交通流在任意速度下稳定所需满足的临界CACC比例与CACC车头时距的解析关系，提出随CACC比例增加的可变 CACC车头时距设计策略，并通过数值仿真实验验证所提可变CACC车头时距策略的正确性. 研究结果表明：在所提可变CACC车头时距策略下，CACC车头时距随CACC比例增加而逐渐降低，避免取值较大影响混合交通流通行能力的提升；当CACC比例大于35%时，混合交通流在任意速度下稳定.研究结果可为大规模CACC真车实验的实施提供理论设计参考.     

Impact assessment of extreme weather events on transport networks: A data-driven approach

The present paper presents a data-driven method for assessing the resilience of the European passenger transport network during extreme weather events. The method aims to fill in the gap of current research efforts regarding the quantification of impacts attributed to climate change and the identification of substitutability opportunities between transport modes in case of extreme weather events (EWE). The proposed method consists of three steps concerning the probability estimation of an EWE occurring within a transportation network, the assessment of its impacts and the passengers’ flow shift between various transport modes. A mathematical formulation for the proposed data-driven method is provided and applied in an indicative European small-scale network, in order to assess the impacts of EWE on modal choice. Results are expressed in passenger differentiated flows and the paper concludes with future research steps and directions.