Paving the way toward autonomous shipping development for European Waters – The AUTOSHIP project

New developments in maritime industry include the design and operation of autonomous ships. The AUTOSHIP project is one initiative promoting the use of autonomous ships in European waters focusing on two specific use cases, a Short Sea Shipping (SSS) cargo vessel and an Inland Waterways (IWW) barge. The AUTOSHIP objectives include thorough regulatory, societal, financial, safety and security analyses for the two investigated use cases as well as the development of a novel framework and methods for the design of autonomous vessels. This objective is achieved with the support of a number of activities, including supply chain, regulatory, risk and gaps analyses. Some results and findings from these activities are presented in this paper. The results demonstrate that the supply chain analysis is important to understand the complex relationships between different partners and phases for the effective design of maritime autonomous systems. Furthermore, a number of regulatory gaps needs to be addressed for the wider adoption of the AUTOSHIP use cases. There is a number of essential hazards associated with each of the two use cases; measures to mitigate these hazards are presented

Value migration: digitalization of shipping as a mechanism of industry dethronement

In this conceptual paper, we review latest developments related to unmanned vessels and sketch potential scenarios that implicate with the existing maritime industry structure. On the one hand, we isolate a range of challenges that make the imminent realization of unmanned vessels seem like a rather utopian pursuit. On the other hand, we explain the reasons that may catalyse their emergence. Inspired by these opposing tensions, we highlight that the digital transformation of the shipping industry has the potential to enhance value within the industry’s ecosystem. However, we also contend that unmanned vessels -if realized- pose a very particular threat to the identity of the shipping industry as we know it. In particular, we build upon the concept of value migration and we highlight the drastic existential changes that may likely stem from a shift to non-seafarer-centric shipping. We conclude with questions that matter for industry dethronement purposes i.e., the possibility that existing industry structures may be substantially reconfigured following a removal of the seafarer as the nucleus of value creation in shipping

The Journey Towards World Class Maintenance with Profit Loss Indicator

To have a maintenance function in the company that ensures a competitive advantage in the world market requires the world class maintenance (WCM). Though several different periods in history, maintenance has shifted from reactive maintenance fixing it when it breaks towards more systematic analysis techniques in terms of root cause analysis. With the onset of digitalisation and the breakthrough technologies in from Industry 4.0 more advanced analytics are expected in WCM. In particular the indicator profit loss indicator (PLI) has shown promising results in measuring e.g. time losses in production in a monetary term. Further, this indicator has also been proposed to be included in predictive maintenance. However, it is not pointed out clearly which role PLI will have in WCM. The aim of this article is therefore to investigate the trends of WCM as well as how PLI can be included in this journey

On a restricted m-non-squashing partition function

For a fixed integer m ≥ 2, we say that a partition n = p1 + p2 + · · · + pk of a natural number n is m-non-squashing if p1 ≥ 1 and (m − 1)(p1 + · · · + pj−1) ≤ pj for 2 ≤ j ≤ k. In this paper we give a new bijective proof that the number of m-nonsquashing partitions of n is equal to the number of m-ary partitions of n. Moreover, we prove a similar result for a certain restricted m-non-squashing partition function c(n) which is a natural generalization of the function which enumerates non-squashing partitions into distinct parts (originally introduced by Sloane and the second author). Finally, we prove that for each integer r ≥ 2, where d = gcd(2, m). c(m r+1 n) − c(m r n) ≡ 0 (mod m r−1 /d r−2), 1 1

Binary partitions revisited

The restricted binary partition function bk(n) enumerates the num-ber of ways to represent n as n = 2 a0 + 2 a1 + · · · + 2 aj with 0 ≤ a0 ≤ a1 ≤... ≤ aj < k. We study the question of how large a power of 2 divides the difference bk(2 r+2 n) − bk−2(2 r n) for fixed k ≥ 3, r ≥ 1, and all n ≥ 1. 1

Dental caries in a Norwegian adult population, the HUNT4 oral health study; prevalence, distribution and 45-year trends

To investigate dental caries prevalence amongst adults in Central Norway and assess changes over the last 45 years. The cross-sectional HUNT4 Oral Health Study was conducted in 2017-2019. A random sample of 4913 participants aged ≥19 years answered questionnaires and underwent clinical and radiographic examinations. Data were compared to findings from previous studies in the same region conducted from 1973 to 2006. Mean number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (D3-5MFT) was 14.9 (95% CI 14.7, 15.1), 56% of adults had one or more carious teeth (D3-5T) and 11.8% had ≥4 D3-5T, with the mean number of 1.4 (95% CI 1.32, 1.42). For initial caries, mean D1-2S was 3.8 (95% CI 3.7, 3.9), being the highest for 19-24-year-olds at 8.6 (95% CI 7.9, 9.3). Comparisons with earlier studies showed a decline in mean D3-5MFT for 35-45-year-olds from 26.5 in 1973 to 10.8 in 2019. In 1973, 4.8% of 35-45-year-olds were edentulous, while in present study edentulousness was found only in individuals >65 years. Despite a substantial reduction in caries experience over the last 45 years, untreated dentine caries was common, evenly distributed across all age groups. Initial caries particularly affected younger individuals, indicating a need to evaluate prevention strategies and access to dental services.</p