1984-2004 Vint Anys del Centre Alfons el Vell

Catàleg i memòria d'activitats del CEIC Alfons el Vell 1984-2004(2005). 1984-2004 Vint Anys del Centre Alfons el Vell. CEIC Alfons El Vell. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/37011

Kazakhstan Gulag heritage: dark tourism and selective interpretation

Kazakhstan holds some of the most significant Gulag heritage sites; however, tourism research remains limited. This article introduces analysis of contrasting sites and considers how some have been developed and others ignored. Selectivity in interpretation is linked to societal amnesia and the collective trauma experienced by the population of Kazakhstan. The article reaffirms the politicization of heritage in this emergent nation

Forecasting tourism recovery amid COVID-19

The profound impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on global tourism activity has rendered forecasts of tourism demand obsolete. Accordingly, scholars have begun to seek the best methods to predict the recovery of tourism from the devastating effects of COVID-19. In this study, econometric and judgmental methods were combined to forecast the possible paths to tourism recovery in Hong Kong. The autoregressive distributed lag-error correction model was used to generate baseline forecasts, and Delphi adjustments based on different recovery scenarios were performed to reflect different levels of severity in terms of the pandemic’s influence. These forecasts were also used to evaluate the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism industry in Hong Kong

Orientalism, Balkanism and Europe's Ottoman heritage

‘Orientalism’ has been used as a lens to understand consumption of heritage sites in non-Western contexts. Through the supplementary lens of ‘Balkanism’, we examine a European region with a significant heritage reflecting the c.500 year rule of the Ottoman Empire. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of North Macedonia and Albania are selected for study given their concentration of Ottoman heritage sites. We note first that these countries' heritage tourism sectors anticipate and modify interpretation to accommodate ‘Western’ tourists' affectation of ‘surprise’ and ‘delight’ at a ‘remarkable’ crossroads between ‘West/East’ or ‘Christendom/Islam’. To understand why Ottoman heritage is often understood to be in but not of Europe, our analysis draws on scholarship interrogating ‘Europe's’ longstanding discursive erasure of its Ottoman-Islamic-Oriental ‘self’ and Tourism's role in this

Canada Refugee Plans - 1985

Canada Refugee Plans - 1985

Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center

Appraisals typically are conducted using four standard methods approved by the American Society of Appraisers. For large-scale, technically unique projects, such as chemical and power plants, and old industrial practices, these standard methods are insufficient. These types of projects contain political, technical, and economic risks that are not accounted for in standard valuation methods. To include these risks in an appraisal, a Monte Carlo simulation method can be used. Probability distributions are used to model the appropriate uncertainty. Modeling future decisions that may have to be made concerning the project can also be included to add insight to the risk involved. A case study of a nuclear power plant is presented. The use of Monte Carlo methods and the modeling of future decisions decreased the worth of the plant by 28% as compared to a standard income capitalization method

Effect of Ti on Evolution of Microstructure and Hardness of Martensitic Fe-C-Mn Steel during Tempering

The effect of the addition of 0.042 wt.% of titanium on the relation between the evolution of the microstructure and the softening kinetics of quenched martensite in high-purity Fe-C-Mn steel has been studied during tempering at 300 and 550 degrees C. The evolution of the microstructure is characterized by measuring the cementite particle size, the martensite block size, the area fraction of martensite regions which contain a high dislocation density, the macroscopic hardness, the nano-hardness of martensite blocks boundaries, the nano-hardness of the matrix and the TiC-precipitate size during tempering. Nucleation of TiC-precipitates take place during annealing at 550 degrees C and starts earlier in regions close to the block boundaries, after 5-10 minutes, and thereafter in the matrix, after 10-30 minutes, due to the higher dislocation density in the regions close to the block boundaries. The TiC-precipitates slow down the recovery in regions of high dislocation density compared to the alloy without TiC-precipitates. The TiC-precipitates increase the macroscopic hardness of the steel after 30 minutes annealing at 550 degrees C. The growth of TiC-precipitates in martensite is simulated in good agreement with experimental observations by a model that takes into account: 1) capillarity effects, 2) the overlap of the titanium diffusion fields between TiC-precipitates, and 3) the effect of pipe diffusion of titanium atoms via multiple dislocations. The average, experimentally-observed, TiC-precipitate size is 69 +/- 48 Ti atoms

Modelling the Evolution of Multiple Hardening Mechanisms during Tempering of Fe-C-Mn-Ti Martensite

We model the hardness evolution of martensite during tempering as a linear addition of multiple hardening mechanisms that is combined with a microstructural Kampmann-Wagner-Numerical (KWN) model to simulate the nucleation and growth of TiC-precipitates during tempering. The combined model is fitted to the measured hardness evolution during tempering at 300 degrees C and 550 degrees C of martensitic steels with and without the addition of titanium. The model predicts TiC-precipitate sizes in agreement with experimental observations and generates fitting parameters in good agreement with literature. The microstructural components that give the highest contribution to the overall hardness are Fe3C precipitates (88 HV) and dislocations (54 HV). Both Fe3C- and dislocation-strengthening decreases rapidly during the initial stage and stabilise after 10 minutes of tempering. The model shows that the decrease in dislocation density due to recovery is slowed down due to the presence of TiC-precipitates. Titanium atoms in solid solution give a stable hardness contribution (25 HV) throughout the tempering process. TiC-precipitate strengthening generates a minor contribution (3.5 HV). The model shows that less than 1% of the equilibrium volume fraction of TiC-precipitates forms during isothermal tempering at 550 degrees C due to the large misfit strain (1.34 GJ/m(3)) and a limited density of potential nucleation sites in the martensite. The model shows that the hardness of tempered martensitic steels could potentially be increased by increasing the TiC-precipitate density by reducing the misfit strain

China: Unscathed through the Global Financial Tsunami

This paper investigates the reasons behind the resilience of China's economy to the global financial tsunami. China's economy is lowly leveraged in its banking, household, public and external sectors and, therefore, is less plagued by the global deleveraging than most developed economies. Chinese domestic sectors have improved significantly over the past decade, giving them larger capacity to cope with external shocks than during the Asian financial crisis a decade ago. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that China's economic growth is highly dependent on exports, we find that the main growth engine for China is domestic demand. Destocking, rather than falling exports, was the main cause of the sharp economic slowdown in China in late 2008 and early 2009. Therefore, the global economic slowdown should have limited impact on China's economy. We forecast a sustained economic recovery in China in 2009-2011, with real GDP growth exceeding 10 percent in 2010. Copyright (c) 2009 The Author Journal compilation (c) 2009 Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.