Professionalization of the shipping industry via postgraduate education

The paper investigates the roles and nature of postgraduate education on the professionalization of the shipping industry. The recent growth of postgraduate education is marked by the massive expansion of professional programmes on disciplines which traditionally emphasized non-academic, apprentice-style learning approach, including shipping business and management. The reasons behind such growth of demands, however, have remained scarce and empirically under-researched. Understanding this deficiency, in this study, we have undertaken a questionnaire survey completed by students/graduates who are pursuing/have recently pursued masters' programmes in shipping-related business and management offered by six Asian and European universities. Specifically, we analyze student motivations, considerations, and sources of information before enrolling such programmes, the extent that the shipping industry or other forces act as driving forces towards such enrollment, as well as students' evaluation of the postgraduate programmes that they are pursing/have pursued. Integrated in these discussions are comparative analyses of the data provided by different student groups based on their professional experiences and cultural backgrounds. We believe that this study has provided the lacking empirical inputs essential for achieving the sustainable development of postgraduate education in shipping business and management.     

Complex study of characteristics of a Cb cloud developing over the Arabian Peninsula under high dew point deficit in the atmosphere. Part 1. Field observations and numerical modeling

Basing on airmass motion trajectory calculations over the Arabian Peninsula on April 10, 2008, it can be assumed that in the lower and middle troposphere, zones with increased air moisture exist due to air inflow from the Red Sea. As a result, mesoscale volumes of dry and moist air are neighboring, though large-scale field is comparatively homogeneous with low humidity. In the mesoscale zones, intense thunderstorm and hailstorm Cb clouds developed, whose characteristics and evolution are studied in the paper. Continuous radar observations of the clouds are carried out during 5 hours. Numerical simulation of the cloud evolution is performed with nonstationary 1.5-dimensional model. It is noted that under the mentioned atmospheric conditions, in the area under consideration, heavy rain and hail from the Cb clouds are observed. The main factors of their origination are high thermal instability of the atmosphere and moist air inflow from outside.     

Sedimentological criteria to differentiate submarine channel levee subenvironments: Exhumed examples from the Rosario Fm. (Upper Cretaceous) of Baja California, Mexico, and the Fort Brown Fm. (Permian), Karoo Basin, S. Africa

Two scales of levee confinement are commonly recognised from submarine channel-levee systems on the seafloor and in the subsurface. Large-scale external levees bound the entire system whilst smaller-scale internal levees bound individual thalweg channels within the channel-belt. Although thin beds are commonly identified in core and well logs, their origin, and consequently their stratigraphic significance is currently poorly understood. This knowledge gap stems, in part, from the lack of unambiguously identified outcrop analogues of channel-levees, and in particular the lack of identifiable internal and external levees. Here we report from two exhumed channel-levee systems where both scales of confinement can be recognised: the Rosario Fm. of Baja California, and the Fort Brown Fm. of South Africa. A suite of characteristic sedimentary features are recognised from internal and external levees respectively: internal levees are characterised by structures indicative of complexity in the waxing-waning style of overspill, interactions with topography and flow magnitude variability; in contrast, external levees are characterised by structures indicative of simple surge-like waning flows, relatively uniform flow directions, laterally extensive beds, and a lack of erosive events. Using these observations, together with published literature, we propose a simple nomenclatural scheme for levee sub-environments, and criteria to differentiate between levee sub-environments in core or outcrop.     

Differences between Mean Sea Levels for the Pacific,Atlantic and Indian Oceans From Topex/Poseidon Altimetry

Geopotential values W of the mean equipotential surfaces representing the mean ocean topography were computed on the basis of four years (1993 - 1996) TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data: W = 62 636 854.10m ² s ^–2 for the Pacific (P), W = 62 636 858.20m ² s ^–2 for the Atlantic (A), W = 62 636 856.28m ²s^–2 for the Indian (I) Oceans. The corresponding mean separations between the ocean levels were obtained as follows: A – P = – 42 cm, I– P = – 22 cm, I – A = 20 cm, the rms errors came out at about 0.3 cm. No sea surface topography model was used in the solution.     

On the Problem of Differential Payment for the Use of Different-Quality Surface Waters in Ukraine

The evolution of views and practical decisions regarding the problem of collecting payment for the use of surface waters with regard to their quality in the former USSR and present-day Ukraine is discussed. A simple and feasible method is proposed for differentitation of regional (basin) rates of payment for the use of surface water in Ukraine with allowance made for its quality assessed based on a system of environmental classifications.     

Periodic variability of surface ozone concentration over western and central Europe from observational data

Characteristics of periodic variability of surface ozone concentration at 98 western and central European stations participating in the EMEP program for at least 7 (up to 14) years are determined. Daily and hourly model concentrations of surface ozone for each station are given in an analytical form that presents a sum of a constant constituent and basic harmonics that determine ozone concentration variability throughout a year and a day. A 12-month harmonic, whose maximum is observed in the spring period (in Northern Europe it is observed 1 to 2 months earlier than in Southern Europe) dominates in the energy spectrum of seasonal variability of daily mean ozone concentration at most stations. The energy part of higher (6-and 4-month) harmonics is the largest at the stations close to the sea and ocean coasts. Higher harmonics largely influence the time of the ozone extremum formation, shifting it towards the summer, or even forming a second (summer) maximum, whose magnitude at a number of stations (in Italy, Hungary, in the south of Germany, and in some others) exceeds the spring maximum. A 24-hour harmonic dominates in the energy spectrum of daily ozone variability. The maps of a “normal” distribution of surface ozone fields and their standard deviations for different seasons and time of the day have been compiled based on the model characteristics. The “norms” derived can be used to detect anomalies in the temporal trend of the surface ozone and to validate its climate changes.