No description available.

Statistics of maritime casualties continue to be the driver of improvement of human performance or rather reduction of human error. Still, too many accidents occur and some can be traced back to the lack of proper training and the lack of certain required skills and competences of the seafarer. One possible means of performance improvement is envisaged to come from (additional) high quality training, using maritime simulator systems. If so, (additional) costs will occur. But if the amount of the increased costs of training is less than the funds to be saved by avoiding accidents, it will justify that such trainig efforts should take place. The overall objective of this thesis is thus to demonstrate how and by how much, well structured, high quality, maritime simulator training can positively influence the safety and economic efficiency of shipping operations. This requires a description of the education and training efforts, simulator applications, human error catagories, performance improvement and the costing and comparison of these various items. The main and novel research efforts will be to determine what percentage performance improvement can be achieved with high quality simulator training. This is done by observations of groups of simulator trainees during various and multiple types of exercises. When the simulator training is performed in the structured manner as described, it should lead to an improved performance and thus a reduction of the number of maritime accidents by an appreciable percentage. The overall result when implemented, could then be that shipping operations become both safer and economically more efficient. As this is usually seen as a contradiction, in which safety is regarded to cost money and economy to generate money this initiative would indeed be worthwhile.

No description available.

Over the past twenty years a growth in sub-standard shipping has been observed. The thesis identifies the causes of this growth. It then identifies Port State Control (PSC) as a measure evolved by some states, with the purpose of removing sub-standard shipping from their waters, and thereby improving maritime safety and the protection of the environment. The purposeo f this programmeo f researchi s to assessth e effectivenesso f PSC in achieving its purpose. An eclectic research methodology has been adopted which first considers, in depth, the global and regional context in which PSC functions. Taking the Port of Hong Kong as an example, the study then reviews how PSC operates in practice. Shipping casualty data is examined to test the merits of targeting ships for PSC inspection. Finally the expert opinion of both official and wider marine communities in Hong Kong is sampled in order to form an overall view on the effectiveness of PSC. The research reveals considerable agreement between all parties that PSC, in general is achieving its purpose. It also recognizes that PSC should only be a "second line of defence" in combating sub-standard shipping. The first line remains Flag State enforcement of standards, accompanied by wider development of a safety culture in the shipping industry

The condition known as myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is an illness of unknown aetiology which affects over 150 000 persons in the UK. Whilst the cause of the condition is the subject of intense medical debate, the official view is that it is a form of atypical depression or somatisation disorder. This view is at odds with the views of many sufferers who claim that ME/CFS is a pathological disease that renders them severely incapacitated. Sufferers' maintain that, because their condition is regarded as a minor, psychological illness, its' severity is not recognised. Thus, rather than being granted assistance, their appeals for help are often met with accusations of malingering or hypochondriasis. This, they argue, results in significant marginalisation. In short, sufferers' state that they experience bodily change that is profound and disabling, however, their claims to be `really ill', are ignored. ME/CFS is one of a number of conditions whose meanings are contested. Other such conditions include Gulf war syndrome, repetitive strain injury, organophosphate poisoning, and multiple chemical sensitivity. These conditions are worthy of sociological study because they `make visible' the way that social definitions of illness impact on the experience of illness. The data for this thesis is derived from an empirical study of sufferers' experiences of ME/CFS. Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, the study explores the embodied experience of ME/CFS and the illness careers of sufferers. The findings of the study are analysed in the light of the sociological literature on `the cultural expectations surrounding illness', `embodiment' and `the experience of illness'. Whilst the past literature has either focused on `the cultural expectations surrounding illness' or `the experience of illness', this thesis brings together the two areas and uncovers the complex set of relations and pathways that emerge when ideas about illness clash. The findings have implications for the sociological understanding of the illness experience. They are particularly relevant because, as the chronically ill population expands, there is an increasing emphasis on individual responsibility for illness. Thus, whilst contested illnesses are a blatant example of what happens when sufferers' are held accountable for being ill, the findings have implications for the experience of all chronic illness.

The aim of this study is to propose managerial rules for recovering from a disruption event in liner shipping. A critical realism philosophy is adopted in the design of the research. Optimisation and an experimental methodology which follows the critical realism paradigm is used as a framework. Particle swarm optimisation (PSO) is an optimisation model in which various rules are implemented to search for the optimal option to recover from a disruption problem. Solution representations for two options, speeding up and skipping, have been designed. A case study of a trans- Pacific route is used to generate novelty in the model under various configurations of degrees of disruption, maximum speeds, fuel prices, time windows and skipping penalties. The results show that the skipping option performs better than the speeding up option when there is a large amount of delay. The port skipping option is more valuable when the maximum speed limit of a vessel is low. The option of port skipping saves more total cost than the option of speeding up when fuel prices increase. Particularly, a vessel which applies the skipping option can save more total cost than one which applies the speeding option when there are high fuel prices and high degrees of disruption. In other words, speeding up is recommended in the case of low fuel prices and low degrees of disruption. The speeding option is recommended when a vessel faces a short delay and has a long time window. In contrast, the skipping option is more valuable when there is a long delay and a short time window. The higher the skipping delay penalties, the more valuable the speeding option is.

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Texte remanié de: Thèse de doctorat--Histoire de l'art--Paris 10, 1999. Titre de soutenance : La cathédrale de Rouen : remaniements et adaptations vers 1300. / En appendice, choix de textes et de documents. Bibliogr. p. 391-405. Glossaire. Index. Résumés en anglais et en allemand.

Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--Droit public--Lyon 3, 2000. Titre de soutenance : Application des règles communautaires de concurrence aux transports maritimes. / Bibliogr. p. 293-296. Index.

Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--Hist.--Paris 10, 2000. / En appendice, choix de documents, vol. 2. Bibliogr. p. 1085-1093. Glossaire. Index.