Bottleneck congestion and distribution of work start times: The economics of staggered work hours revisited

Since the seminal work of Henderson (Henderson, J.V., 1981. The economics of staggered work hours. Journal of Urban Economics 9 (3), 349–364), a number of studies have examined the effect of staggered work hours by analyzing models of work start time choice that consider the trade-off between negative congestion externalities and positive production externalities. However, these studies employed flow congestion models to describe traffic congestion. This study develops a model of work start time choice with bottleneck congestion and discloses the intrinsic properties of the model. To this end, this study extends Henderson’s model to incorporate bottleneck congestion. By utilizing the properties of a potential game, we characterize equilibrium and optimal distributions of work start times. We also show that Pigouvian tax/subsidy policies generally yield multiple equilibria and that the first-best optimum must be a stable equilibrium under Pigouvian policies, whereas the second-best optimum in which policymakers cannot eliminate queuing congestion can be unstable.     

Evaluating the knowledge of experts in the maritime regulatory field

Regulations are introduced by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) into the maritime industry as the result of safety accidents and/or pollution incidents. When there is lack of historical data, then the IMO appoints experts in order to collect information regarding the costs and benefits generated to a stakeholder of the maritime industry once implementing a maritime regulation. Therefore, the role of experts in providing qualitative and quantitative information is crucial with respect to the quality of the maritime regulatory process within the IMO or other regulatory authorities. In this article, a methodology is proposed involving common criteria in determining the expertise of an individual in the maritime regulatory field. As essential part of the research methodology, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is utilized to determine the expertise of an individual based on his/her own judgements. The regulatory authorities and other stakeholders of the maritime industry may use this method when selecting experts for decision-making. In this article, a simulation is carried showing the potentials of the AHP methodology in expertise evaluation followed by a case study.     

Urban single-lane roundabouts: A new analytical approach using multi-criteria and simultaneous multi-objective optimization of geometry design,efficiency and safety

Building safe and effective roundabouts requires optimizing traffic (operational) efficiency (TE) and traffic safety (TS) while taking into account geometric factors, traffic characteristics and local constraints. Most existing simulation-based optimization models do not simultaneously optimize all these factors. To capture the relationship among geometry, efficiency and safety, we put forward a model formulation in this paper. We present a new multi-criteria and simultaneous multi-objective optimization (MOO) model approach to optimize geometry, TE and TS of urban unsignalized single-lane roundabouts. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first model that uses the multi-criteria decision-making method known as analytic hierarchy process to evaluate and rank traffic parameters and geometric elements of urban single-lane roundabouts. The model was built based on comprehensive review of the research literature and existing roundabout simulation software, a field survey of 61 civil and traffic expert engineers in Croatia, and field studies of roundabouts in the Croatian capital city of Zagreb. We started from the basis of Kimber’s capacity model, HCM2010 serviceability model, and Maycock and Hall's accident prediction model, which we extended by adding sensitivity analysis and powerful MOO procedures of the bounded objective function method and interactive optimization. Preliminary validation of the model was achieved by identifying the optimal and most robust of three geometric alternatives (V.1-V.3) for an unsignalized single-lane roundabout in Zagreb, Croatia. The geometric parameters in variant V.1 had significantly higher values than in the existing design V.0, while approaches 1 and 3 in variant V.2 were enlarged as much as possible within allowed spatial limits and Croatian guidelines, reflecting their higher traffic demand. Sensitivity analysis indicated that variant V.2 showed the overall highest TE and TS across the entire range of traffic flow demand and pedestrian crossing flow demand at approaches. At the same time, the number of predicted traffic accidents was similar for all three variants, although it was lowest overall for V.2. The similarity in predicted accident frequency for the three variants suggests that V.2 provides the greatest safety within the predefined constraints and parameter ranges explored in our study. These preliminary results suggest that the proposed model can optimize geometry, TE and TS of urban single-lane roundabouts.     

关于木材运输船安全运输的几点分析

木材船海上运输具有一定的风险,一旦积载和绑扎不当或管理不妥,造成货物滚动、移位、货垛倒塌,就会引发安全事故甚至导致船舶倾覆。因此,加强木材船的安全管理,落实各项安全保障措施,是确保木材船安全运输生产的重要举措。     

新加坡“教学工厂”对我国骨干高职院校建设的启示

新加坡高等职业技术教育中的＂教学工厂＂这一教学模式,在产学结合上有显著的特点：强调教学与实践相结合、模拟现场操作、突出行业性。文章在借鉴新加坡经验的基础上,联系我国高等职业教育实际,对我国的高等职业教育提出一些建议。     

An ontology-based framework to support performance monitoring in public transport systems

Managers of public transport systems have been facing for years the strategic challenge of maintaining high quality of transport services to improve the mobility of citizens, while reducing costs and ensuring safety and low environmental impact. A well-established way to evaluate the performance achieved by the system or by specific activities is to monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPI). However, existing management systems, which refer to flexible yet large and complex data models, provide a limited support to define and select relevant KPIs for the objectives at hand, and even the identification of whether and how the data model is capable to achieve a certain informative need is a critical and time-consuming task. This work is aimed to propose a framework to ease the development of a monitoring system in the public transport domain. The approach is based on the ontological representation of all the knowledge regarding indicators and their formulas, business objectives, dimension analysis and their relation with the Transmodel, the European reference data model for public transport information systems. On its top, a reasoning framework provides logic functionalities to interactively support designers in a set of common design tasks: the choice of the most suitable indicators for the performance monitoring needs at hand, the definition of new indicators and the identification of the minimal set of Transmodel modules needed to calculate them. A case study is included to discuss these applications, while an evaluation shows the feasibility of the approach.     

基于物元分析法的公路桥梁损伤等级评定研究

在构建桥梁损伤等级评定指标体系的基础上，采用 AHP确定了各指标的权重，运用物元分析的方法建立了桥梁损伤等级评定的数学模型，并利用模型评定结果，得到了某桥梁的损伤等级。     

船舶通信英语口语与听力课程标准

结合船舶驾驶员的岗位职责,依照现代职业教育理论和成果,设计了船舶通信英语口语与听力课程标准.对该课程的课程概述、培养目标、与前后课程的联系、教学内容与学时分配、学习资源、教师要求、学习场地与设施要求、考核方式与标准、学习情境设计进行了设计和描述,将船舶通信中典型工作任务转化为学习型任务.     

中国TBM施工技术进展、挑战及对策

总结我国近30年来TBM设计与施工技术的发展历程,可归纳为以下5个阶段:1)研发探索和试用阶段;2)以国外施工承包商为主体,采用国外设计制造TBM施工我国隧道工程阶段;3)独立进行TBM招标采购和选型设计,并建立起自主的TBM施工队伍阶段;4)与国外厂家联合设计制造TBM,工程应用和自主施工快速发展阶段;5)实现TBM国产化,面向国内外TBM工程市场自主施工阶段。通过我国不同时期TBM施工的典型工程,介绍我国在复杂地质、大坡度、高海拔、不同直径、不同机型、超长隧洞TBM施工方面取得的经验、技术积累和业绩,展示我国TBM在穿越断层破碎带、软弱变形、岩爆、涌水等不良地质洞段取得的一系列施工新技术,以及最高月进尺1 868 m、平均月进尺超过600 m和掘进作业利用率超过40%的掘进技术水平。分析TBM在极硬岩、大断层破碎带、软弱大变形围岩、强岩爆围岩、涌水突泥洞段、高地热隧洞和超长隧洞工程中施工面临的风险和挑战,并提出一些相应的技术措施和对策,期望这些措施和对策在未来大量实际工程中进一步得到实践验证、优化和改进,不断积累和创新TBM设计与施工新技术。