The value of business travel time savings

The value of time savings for business travellers forms a sizeable part of the benefits from trunk road, rail and air transport improvement schemes. It is therefore important to possess appropiate values to place on business travel time savings for evaluation purposes. The normal approach in practice is to adopt the wage rate of the workers in question plus an increment for overheads and non-wage payments. In this paper criticisms of this approach are discssed and the implications of these criticims for the development of alternative methodologies for valuing business travel time savings are considered. Data fron two surveys of long distance business travellers and one survey of employers, which were carried out as part of an SERC financed project on business travel, is used to estimate values of business travel time savings for each of these different methodologies. Unlike previous studies considerable use is made of data obtained from stated preference experiments. Revealed preference data is also used to obtain value of time estimates. The results show that, for forecasting purposes, a value a little above the conventional 'wage rate plus' vaue may be appropriate. Although no empirical support is found for the assumptions on which present valuation conventions are based, the empirical results suggest these conventions yield values which are approximately correct, for our samples

The identification of gamma ray induced EAS

Some of the penetrating particles in gamma-induced EAS from Cygnus X-3 observed by a single layer of flash-bulbs under 880 g cm/2 concrete, may be punched through photons rather than muons. An analysis of the shielded flash-tube response detected from EAS is presented. The penetration of the electro-magnetic component through 20 cm of Pb is observed at core distances approx. 10 m

Back to Back Theatre’s ‘Ganesh versus the Third Reich’: Politics, representation and response

This panel considers the work of the Australian contemporary performance company Back to Back Theatre within the context of the conference theme of ‘cultural articulations’. We will address the ways in which religious objections to Ganesh versus the Third Reich were entwined with questions about the economic impact of these objections in attempts to censor and control the work. Helena Grehan’s paper will analyse the production Ganesh versus the Third Reich in terms of the ethical, political and social questions the work engenders. Peter Eckersall’s 'Theatre Love' The paper considers some of the possible ways that reading Back to Back’s theatre might respond to the current wave of a politics where opposition is an end in itself, whereas the idea of ‘taking sides’ requires a radical appreciation of the other. The third element is a roundtable discussion/interview with Bruce Gladwin (Director of Back to Back Theatre) and Alice Nash (Executive Producer Back to Back Theatre

An Investigation Into the Effects of Various Transport Policies on the Levels of Motorised Traffic in Great Britain in 2006

This Working Paper presents the results of tests of various transport policies which could potentially have a major impact on private car travel and hence gain environmental benefits at a national level. The forecasting methodology was to take OPCS population forecasts for year 2006 in 28 age/sex/area type categories, predict the car available percentage of person in each category in 2006, and then predict trip mileage growth (by three mode types for the 28 categories each subdivided into car available and car non-availahle. For the latter two predications, NTS data for 1985/6 and 1991/3 were compared and projected forward with various adjustments. The effect of individual transport policies on trip rates for individual cells was determined from results derived from other studies, coupled with a consideration of economic theory. Of the tests considered, only the tripling of fuel prices for private mode transport was ahle to hold private mode mileage in 2006 at ahout its 1992 level

Countdown to 2010: Can we assess Ireland’s insect species diversity and loss?

peer-reviewedThe insects are the most diverse organisms on this planet and play an essential role in ecosystem functioning, yet we know very little about them. In light of the Convention on Biological Diversity, this paper summarises the known insect species numbers for Ireland and questions whether this is a true refl ection of our insect diversity. The total number of known species for Ireland is 11,422. Using species accumulation curves and a comparison with the British fauna, this study shows that the Irish list is incomplete and that the actual species number is much higher. However, even with a reasonable knowledge of the species in Ireland, insects are such speciose, small, and inconspicuous animals that it is diffi cult to assess species loss. It is impossible to know at one point in time the number of insect species in Ireland and, although it is useful to summarise the known number of species, it is essential that biodiversity indicators, such as the Red List Index, are developed

Uniform Convergence of Fourier Series

Paper by Dr. John P. Nash of the University of Illinoi

The Agnostic God

Through the combination of Western and Eastern religious philosophies in Life of Pi, the main character has a story that will “make anyone believe in God” because he does not constrict God to one category; by trying to simply log God, he uncovers the complexity of God’s nature through duality. In the beginning of Life of Pi, the main character (named Pi) demonstrates open-mindedness towards all religions and expresses his belief in three separate religions: Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. There are distinct appearances of these three religions within the book, but there are subliminal signs of Judaism included, especially when Martel chooses to name the sunken ship Tsimtsum. According to Aryeh Wineman (1996), the definition of tsimtsum is as follows: “God’s act of distancing Himself from the world is but a contrived appearance to effect greater love and mutual delight between God and man.” Pi strives to understand the entirety of God’s infinite wisdom, which makes him a dangerous imbalance to nature; because of this, the universe’s natural reaction is to throw this finite soul into spiritual chaos, which causes Tsimtsum to sink. By doing this, the balance is restored, and the finite soul is snapped back into its restricted spiritual place. Seyed Habibi and Sara Karbalaei (2014) state, “All of these religions teach people how to love God, [and] these three distinct religions are metaphorically substitutional in his scheme of belief.” Marilyn Herbert (2007) also argues that Martel structures his entire novel around the number three; there are nine interjections from the narrator (a variable of three), three significant religions, and even Pi’s name represents a number that begins with three, and there seems to be only three religions mentioned. Martel breaks the concept of the number “three” when he incorporates the concept of religion, with Judaism being the fourth religion that breaks the reoccurring appearance of the number three. Ultimately, he uses these three religions to draw a connection to the concept of tsimtsum. This subtle break from the number three reinforces the idea that there are multiple, unending ways to love God