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.     

Back-Calculation of Ground Stress Field and Rockburst Analysis for Wunvfeng Tunnel北大核心CSCD

Studying the in-situ stress distribution at a tunnel site is very important to determine surrounding rock characteristics, the engineering design and the construction scheme. By using the multiple linear regression method based on the least square algorithm, the initial geostress field is analyzed and the corresponding regression coefficients are obtained. The ground stress obtained from the proposed back analysis is reasonable and can meet the demands of the engineering applications. From the rockburst risk level distribution diagram, it is speculated that the Wunvfeng tunnel is in the high filed stress area. Field monitoring should be strengthened and emergency plans should be made to cope with the rockburst risks during the construction process. © 2018, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

南宁大桥主桥承台混凝土施工质量控制探讨

文章结合南宁大桥主桥承台大体积混凝土施工实例,分析了大体积混凝土产生裂缝的原因,并从承台大体积混凝土施工方案、材料选择、配合比设计、现场浇筑质量控制等方面,介绍了保证承台大体积混凝土施工质量的控制措施以及取得的效果,对类似工程有一定的借鉴作用。     

高低塔斜拉桥抗震设计分析

高低塔斜拉桥由于结构不对称,使其受力特性也体现出不对称性,因此对此类桥梁的抗震分析显得尤为重要。文章以广西某特大桥为工程实例,建立空间有限元模型进行抗震分析,对设置阻尼器提高桥梁抗震性能提供了可靠的理论依据,并介绍了有限元分析的详细过程,可为今后同类桥梁的抗震设计提供参考。     

Driver fatigue: a vision-based approach to automatic diagnosis

In this paper, we describe a system that locates and tracks the eyes of a driver. The purpose of such a system is to perform detection of driver fatigue. By mounting a small camera inside the car, we can monitor the face of the driver and look for eye movements which indicate that the driver is no longer in condition to drive. In such a case, a warning signal should be issued. This paper describes how to find and track the eyes. We also describe a method that can determine if the eyes are open or closed. The primary criterion for this system is that it must be highly non-intrusive. The system must also operate regardless of the texture and the color of the face. It must also be able to handle changing conditions such as changes in light, shadows, reflections, etc. Initial experimental results are very promising even when the driver moves his/her head in a way such that the camera does not have a frontal view of the driver’s face.     

An exact modelling of the uniform control traffic delay in undersaturated signalized intersections

The average delay experienced by vehicles at a signalized intersection defines the level of service (LOS) at which the intersection operates. A major challenge in this regard is the ability to accurately estimate all the components underlying the overall control delay, including the uniform, incremental and initial queue delays. This paper tackles this challenging task by proposing a novel exact model of the uniform control delay component with a view to enhancing the accuracy of the existing approximate models, notably, the one reported in the Highway Capacity Manual 2010. Both graphical and analytical proofs are employed to derive exact closed‐form expressions for the uniform control delay at undersaturated signalized intersections. The high degree of accuracy of the proposed models is analysed through extensive simulations to demonstrate their abilities to exactly characterize the performance of real‐life intersections in terms of the resulting vehicle delay. Unlike the existing widely adopted uniform delay models, which tend to overestimate the LOS of real‐life intersections, the delay models introduced in this paper have the merit of exactly capturing such a LOS. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The speed control effect of highway tunnel sidewall markings based on color and temporal frequency

The low‐luminance monotonous environment in the middle section of highway tunnels offers few reference points and is prone to cause severe visual illusion. Thus, drivers tend to underestimate their driving speed, which can induce speeding behaviors that result in rear‐end collisions. Therefore, discovering low‐cost methods of traffic engineering that reduce this visual illusion and ensure a steady driving speed is an important challenge for current highway tunnel operations. This study analyzes the effects of sidewall markings in typical highway tunnels, specifically observing how their colors and temporal frequencies affect the driver's speed perception in a low‐luminance condition. A three‐dimensional model of the middle section of highway tunnels was built in a driving simulator. Psychophysical tests of speed perception were carried out by the method of limits. The precision of the simulation model was then checked by comparing the results to field test data. The simulation tests studied the stimulus of subjectively equal speed and reaction time in relation to sidewall markings in different colors (red–white combined, yellow–white combined, and blue–white combined). Furthermore, based on the optimal color, the effects of sidewall marking with different temporal frequencies (0.4, 0.8, 1.2, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 32 Hz) on the speed perception of drivers were also analyzed. The test results reveal that the color and temporal frequency of sidewall marking have a significant impact on the driver's stimulus of subjectively equal speed and reaction time. The subjects have the highest speed overestimation and an easy speed judgment with the red–white combined sidewall marking. Within the temporal frequency range of 4.45–7.01 Hz, the subjects have a certain degree of speed overestimation (less than 20%), and the speed perception is sensitive to the temporal frequency changes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

南宁-坛洛高速公路滑坡的治理方案

针对南宁坛洛高速公路K18 200~K18 300出现的大滑坡进行了工程地质调查和地质分析,确认边坡的岩土特性,对边坡进行稳定性分析,并提出适合本岩土工程治理的方法,即预应力锚索及锁梁配合预应力锚索桩的综合处治方法,实践表明,该方法是成功的。     

预应力锚索桩板墙在高速公路中的应用

梅(州)河(源)高速公路K95 940~K96 170段地形横坡陡峻,该边坡在开挖失去支撑情况下产生整体或局部滑动变形破坏,采用了预应力锚索桩板墙支挡处治措施,对于类似路基横向陡边坡处治提供借鉴与参考。     

从河床冲淤分析沉管法修建长江水下隧道问题

文章从三峡水库泥沙入库量的减少以及三峡水库对泥沙的拦截作用两个方面分析了三峡水库对长江中下游河床冲刷的影响,具体剖析了现有冲刷数值模拟的最大冲刷量远较实际冲刷量为小的原因,因此得出了在三峡以下长江中下游不宜采用沉管法修建长江水下隧道的结论。对于重庆地区朝天门两江隧道的修建方案问题,文章在分析了决定修建沉管隧道方案可行性的两个关键参数,即河床水深和水流流速后,指出只要采取相应工程措施,采用沉管法修建两江隧道是可行的。