2,372 research outputs found
The Economic Impact of a Sporting Event: A Regional Approach
This paper aims to estimate the economic impact of a large one-day international sporting event on both a regional and a city economy. In addition, it seeks to investigate the regional origins of visitors to the event, and investigates the relationship between residence and expenditure. The importance of sporting events to regional economies is recognised, but can be difficult to quantify due to the scale and nature of the data required. This analysis draws on over 5,000 spectator interviews conducted at the five one-day rugby internationals (Scotland versus England, France, Romania, South Africa and Fiji) held in Edinburgh, Scotland, during 2002. As such it represents one of the largest databases of its kind in Europe. Spectators were asked about their expenditure, residence, accommodation and attitudes to future visits. Findings were triangulated using a parallel survey of business turnover. The survey data is used to estimate the economic impact on both the wide region (Scotland) and the city region (Edinburgh). Our findings indicate that each match may be worth around £20m to the Scottish economy and £12m to the city of Edinburgh economy. We argue that although this appears large, the methodology used may have resulted in an estimate that is slightly conservative if anything. This points to a greater need for local, regional and national government to exploit the potential that such events can have. We also found that the origin profile of spectators differs between matches, naturally reflecting the origins of the visiting crowd, but more importantly there are also notable regional differences in expenditure patterns among visitors from each nation. We examine the possible reasons for this and the implications for regional and city tourism marketing strategies.
Emulating Simulations of Cosmic Dawn for 21cm Power Spectrum Constraints on Cosmology, Reionization, and X-ray Heating
Current and upcoming radio interferometric experiments are aiming to make a
statistical characterization of the high-redshift 21cm fluctuation signal
spanning the hydrogen reionization and X-ray heating epochs of the universe.
However, connecting 21cm statistics to underlying physical parameters is
complicated by the theoretical challenge of modeling the relevant physics at
computational speeds quick enough to enable exploration of the high dimensional
and weakly constrained parameter space. In this work, we use machine learning
algorithms to build a fast emulator that mimics expensive simulations of the
21cm signal across a wide parameter space to high precision. We embed our
emulator within a Markov-Chain Monte Carlo framework, enabling it to explore
the posterior distribution over a large number of model parameters, including
those that govern the Epoch of Reionization, the Epoch of X-ray Heating, and
cosmology. As a worked example, we use our emulator to present an updated
parameter constraint forecast for the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array
experiment, showing that its characterization of a fiducial 21cm power spectrum
will considerably narrow the allowed parameter space of reionization and
heating parameters, and could help strengthen Planck's constraints on
. We provide both our generalized emulator code and its
implementation specifically for 21cm parameter constraints as publicly
available software.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures; accepted to Ap
Evidence for polarised boron in Co-B and Fe-B alloys
By exploiting the tunability of synchrotron radiation in measurements of spin-resolved photoemission it has proved possible to obtain information on the polarisation of the valence electrons of Co-B and Fe-B amorphous magnetic alloys, Both the spin-integrated and spin-resolved energy distribution curves show a marked dependence on photon energy indicating that the p states of boron hybridise with the d states of the transition metals giving rise to mixed states in the binding energy range 1 to 5 eV, The observed polarisation and spin-resolved densities of states imply that in the above restricted energy range there is a net negative polarisation of the boron states
Improving Shipping CO₂ emissions: A multi-objective study of marine Waste Heat Recovery Systems
Holding the global temperature rise below 2˚C, when compared to the global pre-industrial levels, is one of the most challenging compromises taken by the international community. Shipping contributes in 3.3% of the total CO2 emissions and it is the transport mode with the highest growth, hence it has an important role in achieving the 2˚C goal
Results from EDGES High-Band: II. Constraints on Parameters of Early Galaxies
We use the sky-average spectrum measured by EDGES High-Band ( MHz) to
constrain parameters of early galaxies independent of the absorption feature at
~MHz reported by Bowman et al. (2018). These parameters represent
traditional models of cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization produced with
the 21cmFAST simulation code (Mesinger & Furlanetto 2007, Mesinger et al.
2011). The parameters considered are: (1) the UV ionizing efficiency (),
(2) minimum halo virial temperature hosting efficient star-forming galaxies
(), (3) integrated soft-band X-ray luminosity (), and (4) minimum X-ray energy escaping the first
galaxies (), corresponding to a typical H column
density for attenuation through the interstellar medium. The High-Band spectrum
disfavors high values of and , which correspond
to signals with late absorption troughs and sharp reionization transitions. It
also disfavors intermediate values of , which
produce relatively deep and narrow troughs within the band. Specifically, we
rule out
( C.L.). We then combine the EDGES High-Band data with constraints on the
electron scattering optical depth from Planck and the hydrogen neutral fraction
from high- quasars. This produces a lower degeneracy between and
than that reported in Greig & Mesinger (2017a) using
the Planck and quasar constraints alone. Our main result in this combined
analysis is the estimate ~~ ( C.L.). We leave for future work the evaluation of
~cm models using simultaneously data from EDGES Low- and High-Band.Comment: Accepted in Ap
The feeding behaviour of larus argentatus and other larus gulls at refuse tips
The feeding behaviour of wintering herring gulls, Larua argentatus, at refuse tips was investigated. Immature herring gulls were less successful than adults in independent foraging and in competitive interactions. They relied more heavily than adults on stealing and attacking to obtain food. Foraging ability Improves over at least the first four years of life. Three types of foraging at a refuse tip were distinguished: a) undisturbed primary feeding which was highly competitive, b) disturbed primary feeding in which gulls dipped for food from the air and therefore a high degree of manoeuvrability was required and c) secondary feeding which involved birds feeding at low densities on dispersed and partially covered refuse. Adult male herring gulls took part in more undisturbed feeding, where their greater size afforded them an advantage in competitive interactions, whereas females opted for more disturbed feeding, where they were advantaged by their smaller size and therefore lower wing loading. The feeding methods used by the smaller numbers of great black backed L. marinus and black headed gulls, L. ridibundus present were also related to differences in competitive ability and manoeuvrability, both associated with body size. Use of kleptoparasitism increased within creasing body size. Both herring and great black backed gulls preferentially attacked aggressive birds. Flock composition was variable such that when increased numbers of great black backed gulls were present, there was also a shift towards the larger individuals of both species This constituted an increase in the frequency of kleptoparasitic individuals and under these circumstances female herring gull feeding performance was depressed, whereas that of male herring gulls and of great black backed gulls increased. Complex inter- and intra specific interactions and the high degree of skill Involved in feeding at a refuse tip led to large variation In the ability of individuals to exploit refuse as a food resource
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