Port choice by intra-regional container service operators : an application of decision-making techniques to liner services between Malaysian and other Asian ports

Intra-regional container service operators are challenged to design regular and reliable liner services connecting regional ports at the lowest cost and shortest transit time while considering customer demand. This paper focuses on the selection of ports of call in regular intra-regional container services, an under-researched part of the container shipping market. A combination of decision-making techniques (i.e. Analytical Hierarchy Process, fuzzy link-based and Evidential Reasoning) are presented to assist intra-regional container service operators in selecting ports of call. The proposed methodology is empirically applied to container services between Malaysian and other nearby Asian ports. While Port Klang is the main gateway to Malaysia, the results show that other Malaysian ports should play a more prominent role in accommodating intra-Asian container services. This research can assist maritime stakeholders in evaluating intra-regional port-to-port liner service configurations. Furthermore, the novel mix of decision-making techniques complements and enriches existing academic literature on port choice and liner service configuration

Progress on Intelligent Guidance and Control for Wind Shear Encounter

Low altitude wind shear poses a serious threat to air safety. Avoiding severe wind shear challenges the ability of flight crews, as it involves assessing risk from uncertain evidence. A computerized intelligent cockpit aid can increase flight crew awareness of wind shear, improving avoidance decisions. The primary functions of a cockpit advisory expert system for wind shear avoidance are discussed. Also introduced are computational techniques being implemented to enable these primary functions

Euclidean asymptotic expansions of Green functions of quantum fields (II) Combinatorics of the asymptotic operation

The results of part I (hep-ph/9612284) are used to obtain full asymptotic expansions of Feynman diagrams renormalized within the MS-scheme in the regimes when some of the masses and external momenta are large with respect to the others. The large momenta are Euclidean, and the expanded diagrams are regarded as distributions with respect to them. The small masses may be equal to zero. The asymptotic operation for integrals is defined and a simple combinatorial techniques is developed to study its exponentiation. The asymptotic operation is used to obtain the corresponding expansions of arbitrary Green functions. Such expansions generalize and improve upon the well-known short-distance operator-product expansions, the decoupling theorem etc.; e.g. the low-energy effective Lagrangians are obtained to all orders of the inverse heavy mass. The obtained expansions possess the property of perfect factorization of large and small parameters, which is essential for meaningful applications to phenomenology. As an auxiliary tool, the inversion of the R-operation is constructed. The results are valid for arbitrary QFT models.Comment: one .sty + one .tex (LaTeX 2.09) + one .ps (GSview) = 46 pp. Many fewer misprints than the journal versio

Parametrization and penalties in spline models with an application to survival analysis

In this paper we show how a simple parametrization, built from the definition of cubic splines, can aid in the implementation and interpretation of penalized spline models, whatever configuration of knots we choose to use. We call this parametrization value-first derivative parametrization. We perform Bayesian inference by exploring the natural link between quadratic penalties and Gaussian priors. However, a full Bayesian analysis seems feasible only for some penalty functionals. Alternatives include empirical Bayes methods involving model selection type criteria. The proposed methodology is illustrated by an application to survival analysis where the usual Cox model is extended to allow for time-varying regression coefficients

Tight and loose shapes in flat entangled dense polymers

We investigate the effects of topological constraints (entanglements) on two dimensional polymer loops in the dense phase, and at the collapse transition (Theta point). Previous studies have shown that in the dilute phase the entangled region becomes tight, and is thus localised on a small portion of the polymer. We find that the entropic force favouring tightness is considerably weaker in dense polymers. While the simple figure-eight structure, created by a single crossing in the polymer loop, localises weakly, the trefoil knot and all other prime knots are loosely spread out over the entire chain. In both the dense and Theta conditions, the uncontracted knot configuration is the most likely shape within a scaling analysis. By contrast, a strongly localised figure-eight is the most likely shape for dilute prime knots. Our findings are compared to recent simulations.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure