Ex post analysis of the regional impacts of major infrastructure: the Channel Tunnel 10 years on.

The regional impact of transport infrastructure investment has achieved considerable attention across Europe in recent years. The construction of major bridges and tunnels to overcome natural barriers and the development of the trans-European networks has led to large volumes of research on the likely economic impacts of such investment on neighbouring regions. Most of these studies are ex ante studies undertaken as part of the decision process into the investment, either on the part of the project promoter or the affected regions. At the same time there has been a continuation of interest in the broader question of the wider economic benefits arising from transport improvements at a more aggregate level; whether and under what circumstances such benefits do arise, and if so how they can be incorporated in any evaluation. As a recent study by Flyvbjerg et al (2003) has shown, the claims made for the returns on major projects have tended to be exaggerated, both in terms of underestimates of likely costs and overestimates of potential direct traffic benefits. This paper provides a relatively rare example of an ex post study of what impacts one of the major recent infrastructure projects has had on the local and regional economy by looking at the experience of the Channel Tunnel after its first ten years of operation. The paper reviews the methodological issues in carrying out an ex post study and assembles evidence related to traffic, labour market, investment and development impacts compared to the ex ante expectations. The main methodological issue is in establishing the counter-factual position of how the regional economy would have developed in the absence of the tunnel. A substantial volume of traffic would have continued to have passed through the region’s ports using the ferries which would have required continuing investment over this period. This has been a period also in which major changes have occurred in the EU economy with the move to completion of a Single Market. Many of the driving forces of the regional economy come from the adjacent London metropolitan region. The approach adopted has been to examine trends in the regional economy relative to those in the wider regional and national economies in both the UK and France. There are two basic questions: to what extent would traffic have continued to grow at the rate experienced in the absence of the tunnel infrastructure; and has tunnel related traffic had a differential impact on the local economy from a similar volume of ferry traffic? The paper examines in detail the volume and structure of traffic and compares these with ex ante traffic forecasts; trends in the local labour markets in terms of the growth of job opportunities, occupational structure and the evolution of unemployment; investment (including foreign investment) in the regional economy; and the development and execution of plans for physical development in the region. The paper concludes that although much has changed in the region following the completion of the tunnel, it is difficult to identify a significant difference in the aggregate performance relative to the wider regional and national experiences. Essentially, the improvement of transport infrastructure has enabled the regions to be more integrated into their wider regions and experience a similar economic performance, but whether this has led to a better performance is more difficult to determine.

Malaysia and China students’ feedback on the implementation of critical thinking pedagogy: a case study

Having a knowledgeable and highly skilled human capital is an important factor for Malaysia to transform its economy towards achieving a developed nation and high-income status by the year 2020. Hence, the Malaysian government strives to improve the enrolment of local and international post-graduate students by providing an effective learning process to ensure their quality. This research aimed at describing the impact of critical thinking pedagogy using case-based learning in curriculum studies course among postgraduate students. It was a case study with qualitative approach. Interview technique was used in this study whereby five students who enrolled in curriculum studies course were selected as the respondents. The study sample underwent learning through critical thinking pedagogy using SCSCBL interactive application. Overall, the findings showed that the teaching approach of using the case-based learning can promote critical thinking skills among pre-service and in-service teachers. This study has provided positive implications on the postgraduates’ soft skill development as preparation for their future career

Feature selection to enhance android malware detection using modified term frequency-inverse document frequency (MTF-IDF)

This research synthesizes an evaluation of feature selection algorithm by utilizing Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) as the main algorithm in Android malware detection. The TF-IDF algorithm is used to filter Android features filtered before detection process. However, IDF is unaware to the training class labels and gives incorrect weight value to some features. Therefore, the proposed approach that is Modified Term Frequency – Inverse Document Frequency (MTF-IDF) algorithm give more focus on both sample and features to give correct weight value to some features. The proposed algorithm considered features based on its level of importance where weight given based on number of features involved in the sample. The related best features in the sample are selected using weight and priority ranking process using K-means. This ensures that only important malware features are selected in the Android application sample. These experiments are conducted on a sample collected from DREBIN. Comparison between existing TF-IDF algorithm and MTF-IDF algorithm have been made under various conditions such as tested on different number of sample size, different number of features used and integration of different types of features. The results showed that feature selection using MTF-IDF can improve Android malware detection analysis. It was proven that MTF-IDF is an effective Android malware detection algorithm regardless of different kinds of features or sample sizes used. MTF-IDF algorithm also proved that it can give appropriate scaling for all features in analyzing Android malware detection

European Railway Comparisons – Company Profiles

This work was undertaken as part of a project sponsored by the British Railways Board entitled `European Railway Comparisons'. The aims of this project are as follows: (i)To compare the current efficiency of European railway operators and examine recent trends at both aggregate and disaggregate levels. (ii)To assess the effects of economies of scale and economies of density on European rail operations. (iii)To make an exploratory assessment of the potential for further disaggregation by market type (InterCity, Commuter, Freight) in order to make detailed comparisons of market shares. The main methods employed to carry out this study are as follows: (i)A review of the literature on railway cost and productivity analysis. Preliminary findings are given in Working Paper 354 and a paper presented to the World Conference on Transport Research (Nash, C.A. and Preston, J.M. (1992) "Assessing the Performance of European Railways"). (ii)Collation of published data for 13 European State Railway Operators. (iii)Face to face interviews with managers at the 13 State Railway companies in order to check our understanding of published data sources, gain more infomation at a disaggregate level (administered by a self completion questionnaire) and obtain an understanding of the institutional background. This report summarises some of the background information that was obtained from the interviews undertaken in the summer of 1992. A company profile is developed for each operator under four main headings: Objectives and Management, Finance, the Freight Market and the Passenger Market

Transport in the Trans-Pennine Corridor: Present Conditions and Future Options. Interregional Study Working Paper 3.

This paper reports on a desk study carried out by the Institute for Transport Studies as part of a wider study of opportunities for inter-regional working in the trans-Pennine corridor, considering economic, environmental and transport issues. It draws together available information on transport and movement flows in the trans-Pennine corridor. These patterns of movement are examined from a broad perspective which considers intra-regional, inter- regional and international movements within and across the study area. The report proposes a regional package approach to transport, based on demand management and modal transfer

Characterisation and airborne deployment of a new counterflow virtual impactor inlet

A new counterflow virtual impactor (CVI) inlet is introduced with details of its design, laboratory characterisation tests and deployment on an aircraft during the 2011 Eastern Pacific Emitted Aerosol Cloud Experiment (E-PEACE). The CVI inlet addresses three key issues in previous designs; in particular, the inlet operates with: (i) negligible organic contamination; (ii) a significant sample flow rate to downstream instruments (∼15 l min^(−1)) that reduces the need for dilution; and (iii) a high level of accessibility to the probe interior for cleaning. Wind tunnel experiments characterised the cut size of sampled droplets and the particle size-dependent transmission efficiency in various parts of the probe. For a range of counter-flow rates and air velocities, the measured cut size was between 8.7–13.1 μm. The mean percentage error between cut size measurements and predictions from aerodynamic drag theory is 1.7%. The CVI was deployed on the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) Twin Otter for thirty flights during E-PEACE to study aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions off the central coast of California in July and August 2011. Results are reported to assess the performance of the inlet including comparisons of particle number concentration downstream of the CVI and cloud drop number concentration measured by two independent aircraft probes. Measurements downstream of the CVI are also examined from one representative case flight coordinated with shipboard-emitted smoke that was intercepted in cloud by the Twin Otter

A geological model for the management of subsurface data in the urban environment of Barcelona and surrounding area

The overdevelopment of cities since the industrial revolution has shown the need to incorporate a sound geological knowledge in the management of required subsurface infrastructures and in the assessment of increasingly needed groundwater resources. Additionally, the scarcity of outcrops and the technical difficulty to conduct underground exploration in urban areas highlights the importance of implementing efficient management plans that deal with the legacy of heterogeneous subsurface information. To deal with these difficulties, a methodology has been proposed to integrate all the available spatio-temporal data into a comprehensive spatial database and a set of tools that facilitates the analysis and processing of the existing and newly added data for the city of Barcelona (NE Spain). Here we present the resulting actual subsurface 3-D geological model that incorporates and articulates all the information stored in the database. The methodology applied to Barcelona benefited from a good collaboration between administrative bodies and researchers that enabled the realization of a comprehensive geological database despite logistic difficulties. Currently, the public administration and also private sectors both benefit from the geological understanding acquired in the city of Barcelona, for example, when preparing the hydrogeological models used in groundwater assessment plans. The methodology further facilitates the continuous incorporation of new data in the implementation and sustainable management of urban groundwater, and also contributes to significantly reducing the costs of new infrastructures.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version