Worth Its Weight in Gold: Product Weight, International Shipping, and Patterns of Trade

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Lashkaripour
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Wu ◽  
Glory Gu ◽  
Chris James Carter

AbstractThe shortage of junior seafarers in China in recent years raises a salient question as to how international shipping companies can improve retention rates among Chinese crews. This issue has become increasingly prominent in the context of a global lockdown resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper examines the dilemma through the lens of the “bond” between seafarers and the shipping companies they service, a term used to reflect the need to recognise, consent and integrate into management systems, safety culture, and organizational values. The value of this bond concept is investigated in a survey of Chinese crews (N = 318). The paper aims to reveal the features and underlying factors of the bond, and its influence on needs, perceptions and seafaring careers in foreign shipping companies. The study finds that the majority of respondents do not have a bond with their shipping company, but typically do wish to develop one. Furthermore, this form of attachment appears to be closely related to career satisfaction and retention. To address the shortage of junior seafarers in China, we call for the development of mutual trust, respect and shared values between global seafarers and international shipping companies. A number of policy recommendations are provided.


Energy ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 121547
Author(s):  
Eduardo Müller-Casseres ◽  
Oreane Y. Edelenbosch ◽  
Alexandre Szklo ◽  
Roberto Schaeffer ◽  
Detlef P. van Vuuren

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (19) ◽  
pp. 5061-5079 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lauer ◽  
V. Eyring ◽  
J. Hendricks ◽  
P. Jöckel ◽  
U. Lohmann

Abstract. International shipping contributes significantly to the fuel consumption of all transport related activities. Specific emissions of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) per kg of fuel emitted are higher than for road transport or aviation. Besides gaseous pollutants, ships also emit various types of particulate matter. The aerosol impacts the Earth's radiation budget directly by scattering and absorbing the solar and thermal radiation and indirectly by changing cloud properties. Here we use ECHAM5/MESSy1-MADE, a global climate model with detailed aerosol and cloud microphysics to study the climate impacts of international shipping. The simulations show that emissions from ships significantly increase the cloud droplet number concentration of low marine water clouds by up to 5% to 30% depending on the ship emission inventory and the geographic region. Whereas the cloud liquid water content remains nearly unchanged in these simulations, effective radii of cloud droplets decrease, leading to cloud optical thickness increase of up to 5–10%. The sensitivity of the results is estimated by using three different emission inventories for present-day conditions. The sensitivity analysis reveals that shipping contributes to 2.3% to 3.6% of the total sulfate burden and 0.4% to 1.4% to the total black carbon burden in the year 2000 on the global mean. In addition to changes in aerosol chemical composition, shipping increases the aerosol number concentration, e.g. up to 25% in the size range of the accumulation mode (typically >0.1 μm) over the Atlantic. The total aerosol optical thickness over the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Northeastern Pacific increases by up to 8–10% depending on the emission inventory. Changes in aerosol optical thickness caused by shipping induced modification of aerosol particle number concentration and chemical composition lead to a change in the shortwave radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere (ToA) under clear-sky condition of about −0.014 W/m² to −0.038 W/m² for a global annual average. The corresponding all-sky direct aerosol forcing ranges between −0.011 W/m² and −0.013 W/m². The indirect aerosol effect of ships on climate is found to be far larger than previously estimated. An indirect radiative effect of −0.19 W/m² to −0.60 W/m² (a change in the atmospheric shortwave radiative flux at ToA) is calculated here, contributing 17% to 39% of the total indirect effect of anthropogenic aerosols. This contribution is high because ship emissions are released in regions with frequent low marine clouds in an otherwise clean environment. In addition, the potential impact of particulate matter on the radiation budget is larger over the dark ocean surface than over polluted regions over land.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (5-6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Lachmayer ◽  
Alexander Wolf ◽  
Gerolf Kloppenburg

AbstractFor many lighting applications, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are replacing traditional light sources providing the possibility for smart and efficient systems as well as a reduction in the product weight. A next step in this development is the integration of laser-based light sources to increase luminance and to further scale down the optics possibly leading to a reduction of necessary resources. This article reviews the possibilities and challenges arising from the use of laser diodes especially compared to current high-power LED systems in terms of efficiency, color-rendering properties, and thermal management.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shueh-Chin Ting

<p>Though researchers have examined the changes in the effects of product and service performance on customer satisfaction, the short time frames of most studies prevents deeper understanding of this relationship. This study collects information from pre-purchase to 15 years post-purchase from 11,056 potential and existing automobile customers in the Taiwan market. The data is analyzed by a regression model. Results reveal that the importance of both product and service performance change over long time and the long-term trends of product and service performance weights are non-linear. In addition, from pre-purchase to the second year post-purchase, service weight is higher than product weight, but after the third year, product weight exceeds service weight. Product and service weight on customer satisfaction over time exhibit curvilinear relationships. Therefore, which one of product or service a company should stress depends on the stage in the customer relationship.</p>


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