Ferry transportation plays a crucial role in domestic and regional movement of people and goods between islands, along the coast and inland waterways, though this great dependence often contradicts with a high rate of ferry accidents, especially in Southeast Asia and the African Great Lakes region. Efforts to reduce ferry accidents are impaired by lack of complete and reliable data for accident analysis. This article analyzes the shortcomings of existing maritime accident databases from the perspective of ferry safety research and develops a dedicated worldwide ferry safety database using relational database approach to address the shortcomings and better facilitate ferry safety management-Ferry-SAFEDB. With this database structure, information related to ferry safety can be organized in a logical way that not only strengthens the efficiency and reliability of data maintenance, but also augments the amount of information to form a comprehensive information management platform and conduct data-driven analyses. Lastly, a sample database application is empirically conducted with the major ferry accidents over the past 17 years. The preliminary study shows that the proposed Ferry-SAFEDB is feasible and has the real-world implications for ferry safety efforts.

Ferries and other passenger vessels provide a crucial mode of transportation for many in the developing world, especially in archipelagic nations like Indonesia and in river delta nations like Bangladesh. However, this dependence on passenger vessels coincides with a high rate of accidents and fatalities in many countries, linked to purchase of old, substandard, and/or inappropriate vessels in low-income nations; overcrowding; inadequate training; and sudden hazardous weather Any serious attempt to decrease the number and fatality count of ferry accidents in the developing world must have a complete record of past incidents on which to draw. This report compiles detailed information on the 232 major accidents that occurred around the world between 2000 and 2014. It assesses the prevalence of various common factors in ferry accidents, including human error, hazardous weather, and overcrowding, and makes recommendations for future research into the prevention of ferry accidents.

Maritime transport in the developing world is often unsafe and inefficient. The need for improvement is especially apparent in the record of fatal ferry incidents. A new approach to solving problems is Design for the Other 90% of Us, in which people in the developing and developed world collaborate to create products and systems that are robust, simple, and efficient. Using efforts to address ferry fatalities as a model, this paper investigates how the concept of Design for the Other 90% of Us could be applied to maritime systems in general. Recommendations for research and collaborative efforts are advanced.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes American Society for Civil Engineers Infrastructure Report Card for 2009 Roger Runnigen, “Obama's $50 Billion Spending Plan to Boost Economy, Report Says,” Bloomberg News (Oct. 11, 2010) Bruce Katz, Export Nation (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute, 2010) Over half the nation's production of corn and nearly approximately 40 percent of soy traverse the Mississippi River. Ninety percent of the soy and corn exports from the Gulf came down the Mississippi River system by barge, in “Testimony on the Value of the Mississippi River for U.S. Agriculture” (2004)

Ferries, the safest form of transportation in North America and Europe, can be the agents of catastrophe in some developing nations. Over the past decades there have been numerous incidents in which hundreds have died. The international ferry community, under the leadership of Interferry and the Worldwide Ferry Safety Association, working with IMO support, has embarked on a comprehensive 10-year plan to reduce ferry fatalities by 90 percent. This article describes the first research task needed to achieve the ferry safety goal of devising a framework to determine the responsible parties for ferry safety across the full social fabric, including ferry owners, local and national ferry authorities, national trade associations and international business and regulatory associations. This framework is intended to inform and be used as a guide to mobilize the relevant sectors of society to achieve reduction in ferry fatalities.

A necessary condition to assure cargo security is the establishment of partnerships between the national government, state and local government and the private sector. In this paper we focus on one subset of cargo security, the bulk liquid/hazardous materials supply chain, and examine the private sector’s role with respect to guidance to workers and management. Bulk liquid cargo was selected because of its volume, pervasiveness, and the innate risk associated with its transport as evidenced by the large number of safety incidents that have impacts on mortality and injury. The private sector role was examined because the sector owns most of the mobile equipment and employs a large number of workers who would have direct opportunity to help prevent incidents and/or notice and notify suspicious activities. Our initial surrogate for investigating the participation of the private sector role is through their trade associations who also act as intermediaries with national and state governments. We asked: What guidance do the trade associations offer their members? Is the guidance sufficiently comprehensive? And is it being effectively implemented? These questions were addressed in the first instance by a survey of trade association websites and press information, to be followed by in-depth interviews of the trade associations. Our results showed clearly, that the participants in the survey fell into two categories: the trade associations that undertook guidance early-on, strive for continuous improvement. Those who did not become involved in preparing and promulgating security guidance still remain uninvolved or are moving very slowly. An important next step to assess the effectiveness of guidance from the trade associations as well as the federal government is to conduct in depth interviews of members of the industry. Of particular interest will be to find out how they have incorporated and used the guidance and have improved their security training and operations for bulk liquid cargo transport.

Both the adenylylated and unadenylylated forms of Escherichia coli glutamine synthetase catalyze the formation of pyrrolidone carboxylate from glutamate in the presence of ATP and divalent metal ions (Mg++ or Mn++) and in the absence of ammonia. The unadenylylated enzyme catalyzes this reaction more rapidly with Mg++ than with Mn++, while the adenylylated enzyme catalyzes it more rapidly with Mn++ than with Mg++. The rates of pyrrolidone carboxylate formation catalyzed by the two forms of the E. coli enzyme are about the same or higher, relative to the corresponding rates of glutamine synthesis, than that catalyzed by ovine brain glutamine synthetase. Both forms of the E. coli enzyme are inhibited when incubated with methionine sulfoximine, ATP, and either Mg++ or Mn++; the unadenylylated enzyme, which is inhibited to about the same extent with Mg++ as with Mn++, is inhibited more rapidly than the adenylylated enzyme. l-Glutamate protects the unadenylylated enzyme (with Mg++ or Mn++) and the adenylylated form (only with Mn++) against inhibition by methionine sulfoximine. Only one of the four stereoisomers of methionine sulfoximine (l-methionine-S-sulfoximine) inhibits the enzyme. Inhibition is associated with tight binding to the enzyme of 9.2 to 11 moles of methionine sulfoximine phosphate per mole of enzyme. E. coli glutamine synthetase acts at a significant rate on several glutamate analogs that are also substrates of the brain enzyme. The data are in accord with the view that the major reaction pathway of glutamine synthesis catalyzed by the E. coli enzyme is similar to that of the reaction catalyzed by the brain enzyme, and thus involves formation and utilization of enzyme-bound γ-glutamyl phosphate and a tetrahedral intermediate or transient state whose structure is analogous to that of l-methionine-S-sulfoximine phosphate.