Intra-Industry Specialization and Trade Expansion in U.S. Trade with the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA)

This paper aims to explain the extent of vertical and horizontal intra-industry trade (IIT) in United State\u27s foreign trade with the other 33 members of the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA). It also attempts to identify the country- and industry-specific determinants of vertical and horizontal IIT. This study uses detailed trade data at the 10-digit Harmonized System (HS) industry level and covers a longer and more recent period, 1990 through 2005. The Grubel-Lloyd intra-industry trade index is used to calculate the intensity of these two types of intra-industry trade. One of the main findings is that, with the exception of Canada and Mexico, the U.S. trade patterns with the rest of the FTAA partners are dominated by one-way trade. Another main finding is that the observed increase in intra-industry trade between the U.S. and FTAA is almost entirely due to two-way trade in vertical differentiation. Among the country-specific determinants, the level of per capita income and trade intensity are found to affect the shares of all three types of IIT positively while difference in per capita income, difference in economic size, distance, difference in factor endowment, and trade imbalances are found to affect the share of all three types of IIT negatively. Among the industry-specific variables, product differentiation, vertical product differentiation, industry size, and product quality differences are found to have a positive effect on all three types of IIT shares. Industry concentration is found to have a negative and statistically significant effect on all three types of IIT share

Inbound International Tourism to the United States: a Panel Data Analysis

The objective of this paper is to analyze the demand for tourist arrivals to the United States, using the panel cointegration technique. The study attempts to identify and measure the impact of the main determinants of inbound international tourism flows to the United States. The study uses annual data from 1986 to 2011 for tourist arrivals from 50 major countries of tourist origin. The specified model includes several country-specific determinants. The panel unit root tests indicate all the variables are integrated of order one. The panel cointegration tests show that all seven test statistics reject the null hypothesis of no cointegration at the 1% significance level, indicating that the five variables are cointegrated. The results suggest that tourism demand to the United States must be considered as a luxury good and is highly dependent on the evolution of relative prices and cost of travel between origin and destination country. The results also show that tourism demand is elastic with respect to income but inelastic with respect to tourism price, real exchange rate, and travel costs

A JavaScript API for the Ice Sheet System Model: towards on online interactive model for the Cryosphere Community

Abstract. Earth System Models (ESMs) are becoming increasingly complex, requiring extensive knowledge and experience to deploy and use in an efficient manner. They run on high-performance architectures that are significantly different from the everyday environments that scientists use to pre and post-process results (i.e. MATLAB, Python). This results in models that are hard to use for non specialists, and that are increasingly specific in their application. It also makes them relatively inaccessible to the wider science community, not to mention to the general public. Here, we present a new software/model paradigm that attempts to bridge the gap between the science community and the complexity of ESMs, by developing a new JavaScript Application Program Interface (API) for the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM). The aforementioned API allows Cryosphere Scientists to run ISSM on the client-side of a webpage, within the JavaScript environment. When combined with a Web server running ISSM (using a Python API), it enables the serving of ISSM computations in an easy and straightforward way. The deep integration and similarities between all the APIs in ISSM (MATLAB, Python, and now JavaScript) significantly shortens and simplifies the turnaround of state-of-the-art science runs and their use by the larger community. We demonstrate our approach via a new Virtual Earth System Laboratory (VESL) Web site

Sub-Relativistic Radio Jets and Parsec-Scale Absorption in Two Seyfert Galaxies

The Very Long Baseline Array has been used at 15 GHz to image the milliarcsecond structure of the Seyfert galaxies Mrk 231 and Mrk 348 at two epochs separated by about 1.7 yr. Both galaxies contain parsec-scale double radio sources whose components have brightness temperatures of 10^9-10^{11} K, implying that they are generated by synchrotron emission. The nuclear components are identified by their strong variability between epochs, indicating that the double sources represent apparently one-sided jets. Relative component speeds are measured to be ~0.1c at separations of 1.1 pc or less (for H_0 = 65 km/s/Mpc), implying that parsec-scale Seyfert jets are intrinsically different from those in most powerful radio galaxies and quasars. The lack of observed counterjets is most likely due to free-free absorption by torus gas, with an ionized density n_e > 2 X 10^5 cm^{-3} at T~8000 K, or n_e > 10^7 cm^{-3} at T~10^{6.6} K, in the inner parsec of each galaxy. The lower density is consistent with values found from X-ray absorption measurements, while the higher temperature and density are consistent with direct radio imaging of the NGC 1068 torus by Gallimore et al.Comment: 12 pages, 2 postscript figures, LaTeX file in AASTeX format, accepted by ApJ Letter

Parsec-scale radio structures in the nuclei of four Seyfert galaxies

We present 18-cm radio maps of four Seyfert nuclei, Mrk 1, Mrk 3, Mrk 231 and Mrk 463E, made with the European VLBI Network (EVN). Linear radio structures are present in three out of four sources on scales of ~100 pc to ~1 kpc, and the 20-mas beam of the EVN enables us to resolve details within the radio structures on scales of <10 pc. Mrk 3 was also imaged using MERLIN and the data combined with the EVN data to improve the sensitivity to extended emission. We find an unresolved flat-spectrum core in Mrk 3, which we identify with the hidden Seyfert 1 nucleus in this object, and we also see marked differences between the two highly-collimated radio jets emanating from the core. The western jet terminates in a bright hotspot and resembles an FRII radio structure, whilst the eastern jet has more in common with an FRI source. In Mrk 463E, we use the radio and optical structure of the source to argue that the true nucleus lies approximately 1 arcsec south of the position of the radio and optical brightness peaks, which probably represent a hotspot at the working surface of a radio jet. The EVN data also provide new evidence for a 100-pc radio jet powering the radio source in the Type 1 nucleus of Mrk 231. However, the Seyfert 2 galaxy Mrk 1 shows no evidence for radio jets down to the limits of resolution (~10 pc). We discuss the range of radio source size and morphology which can occur in the nuclei of Seyfert galaxies and the implications for Seyfert unification schemes and for radio surveys of large samples of objects.Comment: 23 pages, 7 postscript figures (supplied as separate files), uses AAS aaspp4 LaTeX style file, to appear in the 10 June 1999 issue of The Astrophysical Journa

A JavaScript API for the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM) 4.11: towards an online interactive model for the cryosphere community

Earth system models (ESMs) are becoming increasingly complex, requiring extensive knowledge and experience to deploy and use in an efficient manner. They run on high-performance architectures that are significantly different from the everyday environments that scientists use to pre- and post-process results (i.e., MATLAB, Python). This results in models that are hard to use for non-specialists and are increasingly specific in their application. It also makes them relatively inaccessible to the wider science community, not to mention to the general public. Here, we present a new software/model paradigm that attempts to bridge the gap between the science community and the complexity of ESMs by developing a new JavaScript application program interface (API) for the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM). The aforementioned API allows cryosphere scientists to run ISSM on the client side of a web page within the JavaScript environment. When combined with a web server running ISSM (using a Python API), it enables the serving of ISSM computations in an easy and straightforward way. The deep integration and similarities between all the APIs in ISSM (MATLAB, Python, and now JavaScript) significantly shortens and simplifies the turnaround of state-of-the-art science runs and their use by the larger community. We demonstrate our approach via a new Virtual Earth System Laboratory (VESL) website (http://vesl.jpl.nasa.gov, VESL(2017))

Reconstructing the thermal structure of the upper ocean : insights from planktic foraminifera shell chemistry and alkenones in modern sediments of the tropical eastern Indian Ocean

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Paleoceanography 26 (2011): PA3219, doi:10.1029/2011PA002132.Shell chemistry of planktic foraminifera and the alkenone unsaturation index in 69 surface sediment samples in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean off West and South Indonesia were studied. Results were compared to modern hydrographic data in order to assess how modern environmental conditions are preserved in sedimentary record, and to determine the best possible proxies to reconstruct seasonality, thermal gradient and upper water column characteristics in this part of the world ocean. Our results imply that alkenone-derived temperatures record annual mean temperatures in the study area. However, this finding might be an artifact due to the temperature limitation of this proxy above 28°C. Combined study of shell stable oxygen isotope and Mg/Ca ratio of planktic foraminifera suggests that Globigerinoides ruber sensu stricto (s.s.), G. ruber sensu lato (s.l.), and G. sacculifer calcify within the mixed-layer between 20 m and 50 m, whereas Globigerina bulloides records mixed-layer conditions at ∼50 m depth during boreal summer. Mean calcifications of Pulleniatina obliquiloculata, Neogloboquadrina dutertrei, and Globorotalia tumida occur at the top of the thermocline during boreal summer, at ∼75 m, 75–100 m, and 100 m, respectively. Shell Mg/Ca ratios of all species show a significant correlation with temperature at their apparent calcification depths and validate the application of previously published temperature calibrations, except for G. tumida that requires a regional Mg/Ca-temperature calibration (Mg/Ca = 0.41 exp (0.068*T)). We show that the difference in Mg/Ca-temperatures of the mixed-layer species and the thermocline species, particularly between G. ruber s.s. (or s.l.) and P. obliquiloculata, can be applied to track changes in the upper water column stratification. Our results provide critical tools for reconstructing past changes in the hydrography of the study area and their relation to monsoon, El Niño-Southern Oscillation, and the Indian Ocean Dipole Mode.This project was funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF project PABESIA) and the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft” (DFG project HE 3412/15–1)

The effectiveness of counter-terrorism strategies

Since September 11th, there have been massive increases in personal, commercial, and governmental expenditures on anti-terrorism strategies, as well as a proliferation of programs designed to fight terrorism. These increases in spending and program development have focused attention on the most significant and central policy question related to these interventions: Do these programs work? To explore research evidence regarding this question, we conducted a Campbell systematic review on counter-terrorism strategies to determine the scope and strength of evaluation research in this area. In the course of our review, we discovered that there is an almost complete absence of evaluation research on counter-terrorism strategies. From over 20,000 studies we located on terrorism, we found only seven which contained moderately rigorous evaluations of counterterrorism programs. We conclude that there is little scientific knowledge about the effectiveness of most counter-terrorism interventions. Further, from the evidence we were able to locate, it appears that some evaluated interventions either didn’t work or sometimes increased the likelihood of terrorism and terrorism-related harm. The findings of this review dramatically emphasize the need for government leaders, policy makers, researchers, and funding agencies to include and insist on evaluations of the effectiveness of these programs in their agendas. These agendas would include identifying ways to overcome methodological and data challenges often associated with terrorism research, increasing funding to evaluate existing programs through methodologically rigorous evaluation designs, and paying attention to existing evaluations of programs when implementing them. Further, programs should be assessed to establish if they cause more harm than good or if they create unanticipated consequences