The relevance of international transport costs on food prices: Endogenous and exogenous effects

The paper addresses the problem of transport costs and their influence on food prices for South American imports. While transport does not seem to be in the focus of existing analyses, its impact on food prices might be underestimated and even closely linked to the development of commonly mentioned drivers of food prices. Since transport price formation is a function of demand and supply, drivers of food prices are also expected to impact on transport prices. The authors argue that a number of relevant factors that drive transport costs - and in consequence food prices - can be influenced by policy makers. Based on empirical analysis, the authors explain the functioning of the determinants of transport costs in the segment of international shipping, trying to describe their exogenous and endogenous components. These results are discussed in reference to policy development in the region.     

大数据时代我国快递业的发展现状与趋势

把握快递行业未来发展方向,梳理了大数据技术在快递行业的应用场景并分析了大数据技术对快递行业的影响。分析结果表明,大数据技术能帮助快递企业进行最优配送方案推荐、实时监控车辆设备、解构行业数据、分析市场格局等,从而帮助行业提升配送效率、降低配送成本。未来,快递行业将充分利用大数据技术加强对物流数据的收集、分析与业务应用。在大数据技术影响下,快递企业将呈现四大发展趋势：（1）时效进一步提升,成本继续降低;（2）从快递向物流上下游串联;（3）从国内向国际网络不断外扩;（4）先进的数据分析技术向其他行业外溢。     

造价编制现场调查与资料搜集

阐速了造价编制时进行现场资料调查和搜集的重要性．并就每一种调查内容提出了具体的调查方法和注意事项。     

离线船舶机电设备振动采集仪系统设计

设计了离线振动采集仪的硬件系统,通过对传感器电源模块的进行了节电控制设计,优化振动信号的采集策略和采集节奏,提出了振动信号数据处理和存储方法,实现了无人关注下自主对船舶机电设备振动信号连续近百天的采集任务。应用结果显示,采集仪系统结果准确可靠,实现了全工况的实船振动数据的采集设备。     

How do economies of density in container handling operations affect ships’ time and emissions in port? Evidence from Norwegian container terminals

Efficient port services are prerequisites for competitive and sustainable maritime transports. This paper makes advances in studying the determinants of the time that ships spend in port and the associated emissions to air. We estimate a production model for cargo handling based on a unique dataset containing each port of call at the largest container terminals in Norway in 2014. In turn, we use auxiliary engine emission factors to estimate particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions from ships at berth, to determine how the corresponding damage costs of air pollution vary with container throughput, location, and terminal investments. We find that Norwegian container terminals operate under increasing returns to density. Small ships that unload few containers are far from reaping economies of density, leading to high marginal time requirements for container handling and consequently high marginal external costs. From a Pigouvian taxation perspective, port charges should therefore be regressive in the number of containers handled. Moreover, we find that the external costs of maritime transports are severely understated when port operations are ignored. Our model allows determining the marginal productivities of port facilities. Thereby, it is instrumental in designing port charges that are diversified according to the quantity of containers handled and the service quality (i.e., the speed of handling operations). Regarding contextual factors, we find that establishing high-frequent liner services improves the ship working rate, while simultaneous calls at a terminal impede productivity. The type of container (loading/unloading; empty/laden) also appears to influence the duration of ship working.     

Formulating cargo inventory costs for liner shipping network design

This study examines how to incorporate the inventory costs of containerized cargoes into existing liner service planning models such that the designed networks could be improved while not causing extra modeling/computational burden. Two approaches are compared: (i) not considering the inventory costs at all and (ii) incorporating the inventory costs associated with onboard time and those related to transshipment by assuming a fixed connection time. The two models are compared with the ideal model capturing the exact inventory costs on a route choice problem and a capacity planning problem based on extensive randomly generated and practical numerical experiments. The results show that: first, ignoring the inventory costs in service planning models may lead to network design with much higher costs (poor network design decisions); second, in service planning models assuming weekly frequency, the inventory costs associated with onboard time could be formulated exactly, and those related to the connection time of weekly services could be approximated by assuming fixed connection time of 3.5 days for ports with 1 day’s minimum connection time and 4.5 days for ports with 2 days’ minimum connection time.     

Understanding the impacts of a combination of service improvement strategies on bus running time and passenger’s perception

Transit agencies implement many strategies in order to provide an attractive transportation service. This article aims to evaluate the impacts of implementing a combination of strategies, designed to improve the bus transit service, on running time and passenger satisfaction. These strategies include using smart card fare collection, introducing limited-stop bus service, implementing reserved bus lanes, using articulated buses, and implementing transit signal priority (TSP). This study uses stop-level data collected from the Société de transport de Montréal (STM)’s automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) systems, in Montréal, Canada. The combination of these strategies has lead to a 10.5% decline in running time along the limited stop service compared to the regular service. The regular route running time has increased by 1% on average compared to the initial time period. The study also shows that riders are generally satisfied with the service improvements. They tend to overestimate the savings associated with the implementation of this combination of strategies by 3.5-6.0 min and by 2.5-4.1 min for both the regular route and the limited stop service, respectively. This study helps transit planners and policy makers to better understand the effects of implementing a combination of strategies to improve running time and passenger’s perception of these changes in service.     

光面爆破技术在城市地铁隧道施工中的应用

文章从光面爆破机理、光面爆破技术中各主要参数的确定,以及光面爆破在实际工程中的应用几个方面出发,以深圳地铁安-侨区间隧道硬岩段施工为例,研究分析了如何利用光面爆破技术来提高城市地铁浅埋暗挖法的光爆效果,特别是近距离穿越重要建(构)筑物时如何有效进行光面爆破。     

金门特长公路隧道通风方案比选研究

为解决目前特长公路隧道通风方案比选时局限于送排式通风的问题,从方案设计角度分析几种不同纵向通风模式的功能特点、适用条件,结合送排式通风与互补式通风的特点,提出单通道互补式通风的组合通风模式,并以金门特长公路隧道为例,从全寿命周期角度,对“通风井送排式”“单通道互补式”“双通道互补式”“吸尘式”4种通风方案进行比选研究。结果表明： 1）送排式通风受通风井位置影响较大,从运营通风角度,宜设置在上坡隧道中部偏下风方向; 2）互补式、吸尘式通风能够突破通风井选址的限制,但对于超过5 km的隧道,需要设置专用排烟井; 3）单通道互补式通风省去送风井,保留了送排式通风的排烟功能,具备比选价值。     

焊装车间机器人的节拍分析及优化设计

为了实现焊装车间降本增效的目标,对焊装车间自动生产线上机器人的生产节拍进行优化.通过分析机器人的工作时序逻辑,查找机器人不合理的工作时序,进而分析机器人的底层程序,修改程序上的问题,优化工作时序,消除机器人工作时序逻辑不合理产生的等待浪费,提升生产线的生产节拍,从而提高车间的生产效率,最终实现降本增效的目标.