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Structural design characteristics for a large high speed trimaran sealift ship are determined using the Lloyd's Register Trimaran Rules. These are compared to characteristics determined utilizing a more traditional naval approach for monohulls and also with a combination of naval and American Bureau of Shipping commercial criteria. The analysis also considers additional approaches for determining transverse hull loads and wet deck pressures by alternative procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work shows a complex analysis of the effects of bearing mounting a naval articulated rudder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maritime transport is a catalyst for economic development, being an inexpensive means of transport, which can be profitable even for ordinary goods transport, due to relatively low prices, compared to other forms of transport. The economic development of society, and the development of transport, including maritime transport, took place simultaneously; there is a close interdependence between international economic relation development and the naval transport development: on the one hand, increasing business exchange among states triggers an increasing demand for transport and finally leads to increasing investments for transport development and, on the other hand, transport development (by improving transport means, ports, airports, railways, pipelines, creating new transport routes facilitating commodity exchange and reducing transport costs) has an active influence on international commodity exchange development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting and classifying objects in sidescan sonar images is an important underwater application with relevance to naval transportation and defense. Properties of the imaging modality, in this case, often introduce large intraclass variabilities reducing the discriminative power of any classification algorithm and limiting the possibilities of improving classification accuracy by advances in pattern recognition only. In this work, we investigate the role of an ancillary feature set computed on object shadows and propose a scheme for exploiting this useful, but variedly reliable information for object classification. A mean-shift-clustering-based segmentation technique is used for isolating highlight and shadow segments from the images. We show the results of reliability-aware fusion of features computed on highlight and shadows on three different data sets of sidescan sonar images, to illustrate under what conditions such information might be useful. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is an increasing demand for rapidly deployable causeways that can provide access from ship-to-shore for military and disaster relief operations. Existing systems have major limitations including only being transportable and emplaceable by large strategic sealift vessels, having high weight and packaged volumes, and requiring intensive on-site assembly. In response to the demand for a lightweight, air-liftable, quickly emplaceable causeway, the Engineer Research and Development Center (Vicksburg, Mississippi) developed a prototype comprised of aluminum modules joined by compliant connections and supported by pneumatic floats. As research and development progressed and experience was gained, eliminating the heavy and complex compliant connections was identified as a potential improvement. To eliminate these compliant connections, this paper shows how this design can be reconceptualized so a desired superstructure flexibility (that takes advantage of buoyancy while meeting deflection limits) is achieved. The superstructure has been designed for a target stiffness to permit a desired curvature under a design moment. This paper will review existing causeways, present this reconceptualization, and discuss the optimization implemented to achieve this new design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The naval operators as economic entities are accomplishing the same functions in the financial matters, as any other company, from any other sector, in all business dimensions, being broadly governed by the same financial mechanisms as any other economic enterprise, coming together due to legal and fiscal aspects at least. Disregarding this tendency there are some features that can make the difference important, considering the international or off-national character of the business as the external maritime services are, a particular study in these matters being thus justified. In the presented paperwork the authors are making a first step, overviewing the financial particularities of naval operators, revealing the main particularities regarding the stock concepts in naval transports, underlining afterwards some conceptual particular aspects of it. The final conclusions draft some practical measures in order to improve the financial liquidity and solvability, starting from the naval contract clauses bargain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to analyze the students' perception over their faculty, Faculty of Navigation and Naval Transport, regarding Economic Engineering in Transports specialization from Constanta Maritime University. This research aims to highlight the students' view about the way their faculty is being perceived. Also, this research aims to analyze the differences between those from Economic Engineering in Transports and those from other faculties within Constanta Maritime University. Another objective of this study case is to reduce uncertainty over the management's marketing behavior because it provides information about college students regarding their attitudes, opinions and behavior. The research technique used in this project is based on a questionnaire survey method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The invasive softshell clam (Mya arenaria Linnaeus, 1758) is native to the northwestern region of the Atlantic Ocean. This species has been introduced in the northeast Pacific and along the European coasts, due to intense naval transports and aquaculture, and it is now present in all the European seas. In this paper we describe seven new microsatellite loci for Mya arenaria. The isolated loci are polymorphic with a number of alleles per locus between 6 and 14. The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.417 to 0.951, and from 0.643 to 0.895, with an average of 0.716 and 0.775, respectively. These microsatellite markers should be useful in analyzing this species' genetic diversity, which could explain various processes of its invasion history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annals of 'Constantin Brancusi' University of Targu-Jiu. Engineering Series / Analele Universităţii Constantin Brâncuşi din Târgu-Jiu. Seria Inginerie is the property of Universitatea Constantin Brancusi din Targu-Jiu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article offers information on the development and benefits of a stochastic-optimization model for military sea lift deployment of U.S. cargo ships and cargo. It states that the model optimizes possible attacks on overseas seaports of debarkation (SPOD's) and allied seaports of debarkation (SPOE's). It notes that several optimization models have been developed for sealift deployment such as Theres and Aviles. It also cites simulation as a preferred optimization method for military attacks.

This article develops a framework for considering the future requirements for U.S. maritime power. It does so by proposing that these requirements must be considered within the context of an integrated National Fleet—the combined capabilities of the three “Sea Services”—the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard. It also would include their reserve components, as well as the Military Sealift Command (MSC) and the Maritime Administration''s Ready Reserve Force (RRF)—the two organizations responsible for maintaining the nation''s strategic sealift fleet. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A new architecture for simulating intratheater sealift operations is presented. Intratheater sealift operations refer to new strategies proposed for quickly deploying a military force to a theater of war when major seaports are not available. In this strategy, a self-deployable force is transported to a sea-based intermediate staging base (SISB) by conventional cargo transport ships. The SISB is a world-class seaport generally located within 800 miles of the theater of war. At the SISB, cargo is transferred to a new ship platform called the theater support vessel (TSV). TSVs are to be designed to access very small ports located at or near the theater of war. Simulation provides an efficient and cost-effective method for testing these strategies and for evaluating the required new logistics technologies. Should intratheater sealift operations prove viable, the simulation also provides a means to plan and rehearse an exercise. The new simulation architecture is described and example simulation case studies are conducted to demonstrate the capabilities and potential benefits of the approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With the end of the Cold War and the adoption of a new NATO strategic concept, NATO nations now emphasize the use of mobile, flexible, and multinational military forces to be deployed for a myriad of crisis response operations outside the normal NATO treaty area. One critical shortfall for a number of NATO members has been the ready availability of strategic sea and airlift assets. Most NATO nations rely on the civilian transport market to provide dry cargo vessels and wide-body cargo aircraft. The two NATO strategic commands, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) and Headquarter Supreme Allied Command Atlantic (SACLANT), have been assessing the requirements for sea and airlift and have proposed to nations a variety of measures to improve their movement and transport capability. SACLANT staff has been developing the operations research methods to assist in this assessment. The current paper conveys the methodology and the mathematical programming model used in this analysis, using ship, aircraft, and port availability constraints. Furthermore, the paper presents a framework of the modeling and simulation capability of the NATO commands and agencies in the movement and transportation area. Additionally, the paper provides an example of the use of simulation models in follow-up activities such as high-level seminars in which national military force planners and movement and transport staff participate. During these events, participants are provided with the results from a number of transportation simulation models, in an attempt to steer the decision making process in NATO. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement(VISA) was established in February 1997, following approval of the Maritime Security Program (MSP) under the Maritime Security Act of 1996 (MSA). Ocean carriers enroll in the MSP in order to receive subsidies that are meant to offset the higher cost of operating U.S.-flag vessels. Carriers with vessels enrolled in the MSP agree to make their ships and related intermodal equipment available on request to the U.S. Department of Defense if VISA is activated. Because VISA has been in effect only since 1997, it is too early to assess VISA's impact on the strategic mobility of the U.S. military. However, it has provided some assistance to the shrinking fleet of U.S.-flag ships, and to the maintenance of a reservoir of skilled U.S. mariners. Also, the cost of subsidizing U.S.-flag shipping has been reduced; MSP/VISA subsidies amount to considerably less than the cost of maintaining additional government-owned ships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]