Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-137).

Global economic development has significantly increased the demand for container liner shipping which has led to its global restructuring. Under such a situation, hub-and-spoke liner shipping systems have become increasingly popular which cause more intense competition between major ports and thus transhipment traffic is perceived to play a more important role in deciding the competitive positions of ports. Although there was no shortage of studies investigating port competitiveness in the past decades, most of them had overlooked the necessity of theorising port competition while ignoring the importance of including less-readily quantifiable factors in the port competitiveness assessment process. Thus, a research gap clearly exists and through investigating the competitiveness of Antwerp, Bremerhaven, Felixstowe, Hamburg, Le Havre and Rotterdam acting as container transhipment hubs in North Europe, this thesis attempts to theorise port competition. Apart from providing a theoretical framework, Port Competitiveness Model, to future port research, this thesis also aims to identify the major factors affecting port attractiveness, to assess port choice behaviour, to investigate the current port competitiveness and to forecast their future prospects in the market. Research methodology involves various quantitative modelling techniques including generalized cost calculations (to assess port attractiveness), Multinomial Logit Model (to assess port choice behaviours of liners and the current competitive positions of ports) and Logistic Regression (to predict port competitiveness in the future), while data collection includes a questionnaire survey of major liners and various in-depth interviews with port and shipping experts in Europe. Findings indicate that money and time are not sufficient to explain the choices of liners and other less-quantifiable factors like geography, quality of services, values and perceptions, inertia, limitations of liners are also significant. Rotterdam is currently the overall market leader in the North European transhipment market but may be fragile in resisting challenges from competitors while Hamburg is a regional leader in the Scandinavia-Baltic market. On the other hand, Bremerhaven is currently an underachiever but possesses potential if it changes its current competitive strategies while Antwerp also possesses potential but faces different problems in its developments. For poor performing ports like Felixstowe and Le Havre, they need to improve significantly before they can really compete. Also, results suggest that ports should not only focus on expensive physical improvements (like infrastructure) but should also pay attention to software aspects in port operations e.g. management, marketing, etc. The key to achieve port competitiveness does not depend on port's administrative system but on how it executes the system and makes things work. In the foreseeable future, the author firmly believes that this thesis will become one of the theoretical 'pillars' in the theory of port competition.

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Industrial Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Engr.)--University of California, Davis, 2008. / Adviser: Yueyue Fan. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.U.P.)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-116). Also available online.

The primary purpose of the thesis is to evaluate the need for a container handling facility in the Port of Vancouver. During the late 1960's, the shipping industry has been urging construction of a container berth to protect its position against losing traffic to nearby ports which already have container facilities in operation. The National Harbours Board, on the other hand, has been reluctant to commit funds to a long-term project for construction and operating of a facility when the need for a facility is still poorly defined. The majority of claims by either the shipping industry or the port authority have been based on observation and in no instance has an in-depth study been presented covering all aspects that would support the contentions of either side. The study reviews the history of containerization in world trade and describes the developments in containerization at major seaports. Criteria for port planning are discussed, followed by a review of containerization taking place in Canadian ports. Recent studies undertaken to forecast potential containerizable cargo were examined to determine the significance of containerization in the intermodal systems and to highlight developments in world trade, fleet expansion, and in port planning. The studies also provided a framework in which to develop the method for determining the potential container traffic in Vancouver. The method, described herein as a Container Calculation Model, determines the potential containerizable tonnage and number of containerloads in major trade routes serving Vancouver. Input data for all import-export commodities on a route-by-route basis were obtained from the National Harbours Board. Each commodity was classified by its suitability to containerization by using both economic and physical criteria. Results of the Container Calculation Model showed the maximum number of loaded containers which would have been handled in the Port of Vancouver during 1967 would have been 87,700 20-foot containers. This includes both inbound and outbound traffic for all classes of containerization. In terms of total potential tonnage, the port would have handled 785,000 tons import, and 381,000 tons export in containers. Total import tons amounted to 1,969,000 tons of which 39.9 per cent was potentially containerizable. Only 3.5 per cent of 12,130,000 tons outbound was suitable for containerization. In the study, only 'Prime' commodities are used as the basis of evaluation of a container facility. During 1967, 43,100 units would have been handled on thirteen major trade routes. Japan, Europe, and Southeast Asia account for the majority of traffic. In terms of containerloads, the overall imbalance is almost 5:1 in favour of inbound traffic. On the Orient route, the imbalance is 10:1. Results of the computer analysis for potential containerized cargo was compared with the volume of actual container traffic during 1967, 1968 and early 1969. In 1967, only about two per cent of the potential was being realized. In terms of both container tonnage and number of containerloads, the study concluded that there is a definite potential for increased container traffic in the Port of Vancouver 'Prime' container traffic is sufficient to consider one container berth, served by one container crane, and thirty acres of backup area. One container berth would be sufficient to handle port requirements up until at least the mid 1970's. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The objective of this study is to examine the factors affecting international container traffic, with special reference to the Port of Vancouver. In order to achieve this objective, a number of topics are examined. First, background information about West Coast container ports and trade flows and patterns of economic activity are provided. This is followed by an examination of the transportation system concept and by a presentation of important characteristics of current container ports. Then, the economics of container vessel size are discussed. The present institutional frameworks in Canada and in the United States are examined, followed by an examination of current trends of shipping services that may have an impact on container movements through the West Coast. Some of the factors that are relevant to shipping lines when assessing different route configurations are identified and a computer model is used to evaluate the attractiveness of two different configurations involving ports in the Pacific Northwest. The sensitivity of route choice to different parameters is examined. Finally, general conclusions are presented. It is suggested that the development of sophisticated intermodal services in the United States may have an important impact in the routing of Canadian cargo through American ports; the trend towards an increase in vessel size is also a factor that favours the concentration of services through the United States. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Monitoring software actions is one of the most studied approaches to help security researchers understand how software interacts with the system or network. In many cases, monitoring is an important component to help detect attacks that use software vulnerabilities as a vector to compromise endpoints. Attacks are becoming more sophisticated and network use is growing dramatically. Both host-based and network-based monitoring are facing different challenges. A host-based approach has more insight into software's actions but puts itself at the risk of compromise. When deployed on the server endpoint, the lack of separation between different clients only further complicates the monitoring scope. Compared to network-based approaches, host-based monitoring usually loses control of a software's network trace once the network packet leaves the endpoint. On the other hand, network-based monitoring usually has full control of a software's network packets but confronts scalability problems as the network grows. This thesis focuses on the limitations of the current monitoring approaches and technologies and proposes different solutions to mitigate the current problem. For software-defined networking, we design and implement a host-based SDN system that achieves the same forwarding path control and packet rewriting functionality as a switch-based SDN. Our implementation empower the host-based SDN with more control in the network even without using any SDN-enabled middleboxes, allowing SDN adoption in large-scale deployments. We further corroborate flow reports from different host SDN agents to address the endpoint compromise problem. On the server endpoint, we leverage containers as a light-weight environment to separate different clients and build monitoring infrastructures to narrow down the monitoring scope that have the potential to facilitate further forensic analysis.

published_or_final_version / Transport Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration