Degradation of Dispersants and Dispersed Oil

Chemical oil dispersants are proprietary mixtures of surfactants and solvents which are directly applied to a spill in order to reduce the natural attractive forces of the oil. When oil treated with dispersants is exposed to mixing energy, typically from wind and wave action, it is broken up into small droplets which may then become entrained in the water column (Li et al., 2009a; Li et al., 2009b; Li, 2008; Lunel, 1995). Many of these droplets are small enough to be neutrally buoyant, and therefore, advection and diffusion forces dilute the plume and transport the droplets far from the site of the original spill. As compared to a surface oil slick or larger and more buoyant physically dispersed oil droplets, these chemically dispersed droplets are much easier for oil-degrading bacteria to colonize and break down (Venosa and Holder, 2007; Venosa and Zhu, 2003). In addition, small droplets enhance dissolution of soluble and semi-volatile compounds into surrounding waters, wherein biodegradation is carried out by aqueous phase microbes. Under these conditions, oil concentration are effectively reduced below toxicity threshold limits, and biodegradation becomes the most important process in reducing the total mass of petroleum hydrocarbons in the environment. By enabling rapid dispersion and biodegradation of surface oil slicks at sea, the use of chemical oil dispersants can be effective in preventing heavy oiling of sensitive coastal environments such as beaches and wetlands, and consequently mitigates risk associated with marine and terrestrial wildlife coming into direct contact with a slick

A Theory Explains Deep Learning

This is our journal for developing Deduction Theory and studying Deep Learning and Artificial intelligence. Deduction Theory is a Theory of Deducing World’s Relativity by Information Coupling and Asymmetry. We focus on information processing, see intelligence as an information structure that relatively close object-oriented, probability-oriented, unsupervised learning, relativity information processing and massive automated information processing. We see deep learning and machine learning as an attempt to make all types of information processing relatively close to probability information processing. We will discuss about how to understand Deep Learning and Artificial intelligence and why Deep Learning is shown better performance than the other methods by metaphysical logic

The Factor Content of U.S. Trade: An Explanation for the Widening Wage Gap?

International Relations/Trade,

Modeling software systems by domains

The Software Architectures Engineering (SAE) Project at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has developed engineering modeling techniques that both reduce the complexity of software for domain-specific computer systems and result in systems that are easier to build and maintain. These techniques allow maximum freedom for system developers to apply their domain expertise to software. We have applied these techniques to several types of applications, including training simulators operating in real time, engineering simulators operating in non-real time, and real-time embedded computer systems. Our modeling techniques result in software that mirrors both the complexity of the application and the domain knowledge requirements. We submit that the proper measure of software complexity reflects neither the number of software component units nor the code count, but the locus of and amount of domain knowledge. As a result of using these techniques, domain knowledge is isolated by fields of engineering expertise and removed from the concern of the software engineer. In this paper, we will describe kinds of domain expertise, describe engineering by domains, and provide relevant examples of software developed for simulator applications using the techniques

Post Borders: Informal Bilingual Blogging and Iintercultural Ccommunication Competence

This paper describes an informal bilingual blogging environment that was created to develop intercultural communicative competence. After a consideration of ICC, the paper explores the opportunities for development of ICC that were created by three features of this blogging activity. A descriptive analysis shows that the design features of informality of topic, and intentional lack of strict language protocol, as well as attention to cultures of use of blogging\ud were associated with users’ display of ICC

Accounting for Wage and Employment Changes in the U.S. from 1968-2000: A Dynamic Model of Labor Market Equilibrium

This paper presents a unified treatment of and explanation for the evolution of wages and employment in the U.S. over the last 30 years. Specifically, we account for the pattern of changes in wage inequality, for the increased relative wage and employment of women, for the emergence of the college wage premium and for the shift in employment from the goods to the service-producing sector. The underlying theory we adopt is neoclassical, a two-sector competitive labor market economy in which the supply of and demand for labor of heterogeneous skill determines spot market skill-rental prices. The empirical approach is structural. The model embeds many of the features that have been posited in the literature to have contributed to the changing U.S. wage and employment structure including skill-biased technical change, capital-skill complementarity, changes in relative product-market prices, changes in the productivity of labor in home production and demographics such as changing cohort size and fertility.gender wage differential, college wage premium, sectoral changes

Accounting for Wage and Employment Changes in the U. S. from 1968-2000: A Dynamic Model of Labor Market Equilibrium

In this paper, we present a unified treatment of and explanation for the evolution of wages and employment in the U.S. over the last 30 years. Specifically, we account for the pattern of changes in wage inequality, for the increased relative wage and employment of women, for the emergence of the college wage premium and for the shift in employment from the goods to the service-producing sector. The underlying theory we adopt is neoclassical, a two-sector competitive labor market economy in which the supply of and demand for labor of heterogeneous skill determines spot market skill-rental prices. The empirical approach is structural. The model embeds many of the features that have been posited in the literature to have contributed to the changing U.S. wage and employment structure including skill-biased technical change, capital-skill complementarity, changes in relative product-market prices, changes in the productivity of labor in home production and demographics such as changing cohort size and fertility.Male-Female Wage Differential, Wage Inequality, College Wage Premium

Intersectoral Labor Mobility and the Growth of the Service Sector

One of the most striking changes in the U.S. economy over the past 50 years has been the growth in the service sector. In 1950, 57 percent of workers were employed in the service sector, by 1970 that figure had risen to 63 percent and by 2000 to 75 percent. While service sector employment grew by 2.2 percent per year faster than employment in the goods sector between 1968 and 2000, the real hourly wage in the service sector grew only by 0.23 percent more per year over the same period. In this paper, we assess whether or not the essential constancy of the relative wage implies that individuals face small costs of switching sectors and quantify the relative importance of labor supply and demand factors in the growth of the service sector. We specify and estimate a two-sector growth model with idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks that allows us to address these empirical issues in a unified coherent framework. Our estimates imply that there are large mobility costs; output in both sectors would have been double their current levels if these mobility costs had been zero. In addition, we find that demand side factors, that is, technical change and movements in product and capital prices, were responsible for the growth of the service sector.labor mobility, service sector growth, labor market equilibrium

The Promotion of Rural Tourism in Korea and Other East Asia Countries: Policies and Implementation

Within a context of global trade liberalisation and constrained national budgets, agriculture in many countries has proved incapable of sustaining household livelihoods an d socio-economic development in rural areas. The post-war industrial success of several Asian countries has suggested various alternatives for rural development, including tourism for domestic and possibly foreign visitors. After outlining the economic characteristics of rural tourism and its policies, this paper reviews the evolution of government policies in this area in East Asia, including the establishment of "tourist farms" and "pilot scheme" villages in Korea since the 1980s. A field survey of some 200 Korean village leaders and others, undertaken in 2004, is reported as to the attitudes of this policy clientele towards the tourist potential of their own villages, and ways of exploiting this potential. On this basis, conclusions are drawn as to future policies in this area, taking into account the capabilities of the rural population in East Asian countries, and the need for and scope of governmental action.rural tourism, Korea, East Asia, tourism policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, O18, Q26, Q28,