4,867 research outputs found
Satellite Power System (SPS)
Potential organizational options for a solar power satellite system (SPS) were investigated. Selection and evaluation criteria were determined to include timeliness, reliability, and adequacy to contribute meaningfully to the U.S. supply; political feasibility (both national and international); and cost effectiveness (including environmental and other external costs). Based on these criteria, four organizational alternatives appeared to offer reasonable promise as potential options for SPS. A large number of key issues emerged as being factors which would influence the final selection process. Among these issues were a variety having to do with international law, international institutions, environmental controls, economics, operational flexibility, congressional policies, commercial-vs-governmental ownership, national dedication, and national and operational stategic issues
Methodological Aspects of Environmental Labour Market Analysis
High and persistent unemployment rates and increasing awareness of environmental degradation in many industrial countries have promoted the interest in the labour market effects of environmental policy. Environmental labour market analysis is fraught with many difficulties, however. Being unaware of these problems may result in misunderstandings and mislead policy makers. In environmental labour market analysis two kinds of questions have to be distinguished: firstly, accounting for the number of persons working directly or indirectly for environmental protection activities and secondly, identifying the net effect of environmental policy on the labour market balance. Answering the first question is not conceptionally contentious. However, elaborating quantitative estimates poses a variety of problems of delimitation and data collection which are discussed in some detail in section 2. This section also presents the results of studies assessing environmental employment in Germany in various dimensions. Section 3 deals with problems arising when one attempts to answer the question of how many additional jobs are created through environmental policies. This requires an assessment of secondary economic effects of environmental policy the size and even the direction of which depend on a variety of framework conditions in a complex way. Quantitative estimates can only be based on model simulations; thus the features of the models applied become crucial for the results. Some rules for making such estimates are discussed. The most important mechanisms to be taken into account are presented. Some examples of empirical studies for Germany are presented in order to illustrate the argument. The most important conclusion we draw is that the delimitations, methods and assumptions underlying any estimates of the labour market effects of environmental policy have to be clearly stated.
International Scientist Mobility and the Locus of Technology Transfer
University technology transfer has attracted considerable attention in the literature with a focus on the institutions, the agents involved in technology commercialisation or the differentiation between formal and informal technology transfer mechanisms. There has, however, been little systematic research on how the mobility of university scientists influences their propensity to engage in technology transfer activities and, particularly, on how mobility influences the locus of such activities. This paper therefore analyses the link between university scientists' technology transfer activities and their international mobility patterns. We characterise scientist mobility along the two dimensions frequency' and intensity' resulting in an individual mobility pattern. We argue that the mobility pattern as well as the scientist's personal characteristics affects the likelihood whether a transfer of technology occurs to a firm in the scientist's home and/or host country. Based on a sample of more than 500 German university scientists, our results indicate that a substantial share of scientists engages in technology transfer both to the home as well as to the host country. There are, however, considerable differences regarding the factors influencing the locus of technology transfer. --scientist mobility,university technology transfer,internationalisation
Global Demand for Environmental Goods and Services on the Rise: Good Growth Opportunities for German Suppliers
According to conservative calculations, over 75 billion in 2004 to between $106 and 171 billion by 2020 (at 2004 prices and exchange rates).The high growth in German exports is responsible in particular for this trend. Nevertheless, sensitivity calculations indicate that demand could also grow at a much slower rate through 2020 under unfavorable economic conditions.Environmental Goods and Services Sector, World Trade, Scenarios
Infomap Bioregions: Interactive mapping of biogeographical regions from species distributions
Biogeographical regions (bioregions) reveal how different sets of species are
spatially grouped and therefore are important units for conservation,
historical biogeography, ecology and evolution. Several methods have been
developed to identify bioregions based on species distribution data rather than
expert opinion. One approach successfully applies network theory to simplify
and highlight the underlying structure in species distributions. However, this
method lacks tools for simple and efficient analysis. Here we present Infomap
Bioregions, an interactive web application that inputs species distribution
data and generates bioregion maps. Species distributions may be provided as
georeferenced point occurrences or range maps, and can be of local, regional or
global scale. The application uses a novel adaptive resolution method to make
best use of often incomplete species distribution data. The results can be
downloaded as vector graphics, shapefiles or in table format. We validate the
tool by processing large datasets of publicly available species distribution
data of the world's amphibians using species ranges, and mammals using point
occurrences. We then calculate the fit between the inferred bioregions and WWF
ecoregions. As examples of applications, researchers can reconstruct ancestral
ranges in historical biogeography or identify indicator species for targeted
conservation.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 2, tables, for interactive application,
http://bioregions.mapequation.or
International policy coordination for collaboration in S&T
This paper discusses an increasingly important, yet challenging development, the international coordination of nationally rooted policies or funding schemes to support international collaboration in science and technology (S&T). It conceptualizes ways in which government ministries or agencies can realise synergies when it comes to supporting international activities of their researchers. Although the principles developed for international coordination can be generalized, it is set in the context of the European Research Area (ERA). Existing conceptual and empirical analysis has shown that coordination of policy to foster international S&T collaboration is by and large rather poor even domestically. The paper argues that international coordination of national policies for international S&T collaboration meets an additional set of challenges that need to be tackled systematically. The conceptual considerations presented in this chapter can lay the basis for an analysis of current coordination activities. They can, however, also be utilised to design systematic coordination schemes for policies geared towards international collaboration as they provide the major elements of strategic approach for such an international coordination approach
- …