Nowadays, there exists a large competition between maritime ports, so that the improvement of customer service became a serious important problem within port container terminals which led to several sub-problems (Vis and Koster 2003). One of these sub-problems is the Container Stacking Problem. A container stack is a type of temporary store where containers await further transport by truck, tra...

The Learnable Evolution Model is a stochastic optimization method which employs machine learning to guide the optimization process. LEM3, its newest implementation, combines its machine learning mode with other search operators. The presented research concerns its application within a multi-agent system for autonomous control of container on-carriage operations. Specifically, LEM3 is used by tr...

Immediate culture or refrigeration of urine is recommended, but not always practical. Therefore, we evaluated the Becton-Dickinson Urine Culture Kit containing a boric acid-glycerol-sodium formate preservative in a study of 1,000 clinical urine specimens. Each specimen was cultured a total of four times by the surface streak technique with a 0.001-ml calibrated loop. After an initial reference ...

In this study, we examine the relationship between firm size and the use of electronic commerce (EC) by container transport operators in Hong Kong and their performance implications. Using data collected from a sample of container shipping operators in Hong Kong, we identified internal and external drivers that affect the use of EC by container transport operators. Our findings indicate that la...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Container-breeding mosquitoes, especially Aedes spp are vectors of diseases such as dengue and chikungunya. The abundance of these disease vectors in an area depends on the availability of container habitats and their physicochemical characteristics. The species composition of container-breeding mosquitoes in Asom, India was studied and the larval density was correlated ...

The yard operation plays an important role in the daily running of a container terminal. Whether the efficiency of a terminal can be improved depends to a significant extent on the operation of its container yard. In order to analyze the yard operation, this paper builds a 3D simulation model to simulate and visualize the yard operation in a container terminal. First, we study the characteristi...