Scheduling material handling vehicles in a container terminal

Increasing global trade has created the need for efficient container ports. The goal of the port is to move containers as quickly as possible and at the least possible cost. Goods that are delayed at the port are inevitably tardy when delivered to the customer, and thus sanctioned by late charges. Two key activities in the port are (i) unloading of containers from truck and then storage in the export area, and (ii) removal of containers from import storage and then loading onto the trucks. Since containers are large and heavy, specialized material handling vehicles are required for transporting them within the terminal. The focus of this paper is on port terminals where straddle carriers are primarily used to move containers. Container terminals typically have well developed computer and communication networks. Through these networks a terminal scheduler will control and schedule the movement of the straddle carrier fleet in real time. The objective of the terminal scheduler is to minimize the empty travel of straddle carriers, while at the same time minimizing any delays in servicing customers. This paper presents a straddle scheduling procedure that can be used by a terminal scheduler to control the movement of straddle carriers. At its core, the procedure is driven by an assignment algorithm that dynamically matches straddle carriers and trucks, as each becomes available. The procedures were developed and tested in collaboration with the largest container terminal operator in the Port of New York and New Jersey. Using a simulation model of the real system, the superiority of the proposed procedure over two alternative scheduling strategies is illustrated.     

Datafying anti-poverty programmes: implications for data justice

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to illuminate the significance of datafication for anti-poverty programmes, meaning social protection schemes designed specifically for poor people. The conversion of beneficiary populations into machine-readable data enables two core functions of social protection, those of recognising entitled beneficiaries and assigning entitlements connected to each anti-poverty scheme. Drawing on the incorporation of Aadhaar, India’s biometric population database, in the national agenda for social protection, we unpack a techno-rational perspective that crafts datafication as a means to enhance the effectiveness of anti-poverty schemes. Nevertheless, narratives collected in the field show multiple forms of data injustice on recipients, underpinned by Aadhaar’s functionality for a shift of the social protection agenda from in-kind subsidies to cash transfers. Based on such narratives the paper introduces a politically embedded view of data, framing datafication as a transformative force that contributes to reforming existing anti-poverty schemes.     

ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST PUBLIC WORKS PROJECT ON CRIME

India started the implementation of a rural public works program in 2006, covering all districts of the country within 3 years. The program guarantees 100 days of employment per year at minimum wage to each rural household, with the goal of reducing joblessness and poverty. We exploit the design and implementation of this program to investigate its employment impact on various types of crimes to provide rare evidence on the employment–crime relationship in a developing country context. We find that employment generated by the program has a negative impact on both property crime and violent crime. The same conclusion is reached when we analyze the impact of the program using its staggered rollout structure as the source of identification in a difference-in-difference analysis. Although crime elasticities with respect to employment are small, this finding represents another dimension of the social benefit generated by the program. (JEL K4, E24, H54)     

Presidential Direct Action and Policy Continuity: The Case of U.S. International Population Policy*

Objectives. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the modern practice of unilateral presidential policy making in the area of U.S. international population policy. The analysis focuses on the implications of this practice in a constitutional system intended to limit and constrain direct presidential action in policy making. Methods. The authors conduct their analysis using a variety of qualitative sources, including leading studies on the topics of presidential direct action and U.S. international population policy, and government documents. Conclusions. Policy development in this area has been marked by dramatic back‐and‐forth shifts due to the modern practice of presidents making many decisions without legislative involvement. Although not the only policy area in which this practice has become the norm, the case study of U.S. international population policy reveals the pitfalls of deviating from the constitutional design of a system of balanced and constrained powers.     

Application of Multivariate Analysis to Increase the Yield of Dry Cell Batteries

In an organization, the manufacturing process of a dry cell battery was suffering from the problem of frequent stoppages in the assembly line. The complete battery manufacturing operation is highly automated and mechanized. It was suspected that excessive variation in overall height of bobbin was the major reason for such stoppages. The bobbin, the inside part of a dry cell battery acting as cathode, is formed by the battery extrusion process. A planned experiment was carried out on the extrusion process that identified the setting of extrusion machines and the amount of water content in the cathode mixture as the parameters causing variation in the bobbin characteristics. The problem of frequent stoppages was eliminated when appropriate action was taken on these two parameters. Finally, multivariate and univariate control schemes were developed for online control of the bobbin characteristics.     

Urban Quality of Life: A Case Study of Guwahati

This paper studies quality of life (QOL) in urban environment. The term environment has been used in broader sense, which includes physical, social and economic environment. A framework has been proposed which posits that QOL comprises objective condition of living and satisfaction from such living condition constitutes QOL. Such objective condition refers to objective QOL and satisfaction refers to subjective QOL. Dimension of QOL has been found to be multi dimensional. It has been found that both objective and subjective condition is important dimension of QOL. But correlation between objective and subjective QOL has been found not to be high. At the same time it has been found that satisfaction from condition of traffic is the lowest among all satisfaction variables.     

Optimum designs for estimation of regression parameters in a balanced treatment incomplete block design set-up

The use of covariates in block designs is necessary when the experimental errors cannot be controlled using only the qualitative factors. The choice of values of the covariates for a given set-up attaining minimum variance for estimation of the regression parameters has attracted attention in recent times. In this paper, optimum covariate designs (OCD) have been considered for the set-up of the balanced treatment incomplete block (BTIB) designs, which form an important class of test-control designs. It is seen that the OCDs depend much on the methods of construction of the basic BTIB designs. The series of BTIB designs considered in this paper are mainly those as described by Bechhofer and Tamhane (1981) and Das et al. (2005). Different combinatorial arrangements and tools such as Hadamard matrices and different kinds of products of matrices viz Khatri-Rao product and Kronecker product have been conveniently used to construct OCDs with as many covariates as possible.     

Admissibility of generalized bayes and pitman estimates in the non-regular family

In this paper we have considered the problem of finding admissible estimates for a fairly general class of parametric functions in the so called “non-regular” type of densities Following Karlin s (1958) technique, we have established the ad-missibility of generalized Bayes estimates and Pitman estimates. Some examples are discussed.     

Estimating parameters of a selected Pareto population

Let Π₁,…,Π_k be k populations with Π_i being Pareto with unknown scale parameter α_i and known shape parameter β_i;i=1,…,k. Suppose independent random samples (X_i1,…,X_in), i=1,…,k of equal size are drawn from each of k populations and let X_i denote the smallest observation of the ith sample. The population corresponding to the largest X_i is selected. We consider the problem of estimating the scale parameter of the selected population and obtain the uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator (UMVUE) when the shape parameters are assumed to be equal. An admissible class of linear estimators is derived. Further, a general inadmissibility result for the scale equivariant estimators is proved.     

Habitat-wise distribution of the House Sparrow (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Passer domesticus</Emphasis>) in Delhi,India

Recently, there have been several reports from different parts of the World on the declining populations of the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). In order to assess the population of this species in the National Capital Territory of Delhi-India, this study was conducted during June– August in 2007. Twenty-eight Fixed-Radius Point Count stations were established in five habitat types viz. High-density Urban Area, Medium-density Urban Area, Low-density Urban Area, Agriculture Area, and Forested Area, within the study area. The results show that the House Sparrow is still a dominant species in the agriculture area. However, its density is very low in the urban areas as compared to the other co-occurring common bird species viz. Rock Pigeon (Columba livia domestica), House Crow (Corvus splendens) and Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis). As, this study was conducted only over one season, the data is not sufficient to provide a clear picture of the population trend of the House Sparrow. Further studies are therefore required to investigate the relationship of the House Sparrow with other co-occurring common species, and to analyse the data on the type and quality of greenspaces and their relation with the House Sparrow in the study area. A long-term monitoring and conservation programme involving local people may be a good approach for maintaining the population of House Sparrow in the study area.