2,688 research outputs found
Calculating External Costs of Transportation in Norway
Transport activities are known to have substantial negative external effects. One of the reasons for trying to value these effects is that the cost to society of using a specific transport mode should be reflected in the price that is paid by the transport user and thus form the basis for a transport tax policy. Previous calculations of marginal external costs of transport at the Institute of Transport Economics (TĂI) as well as the methods employed are in many cases outdated and need revision. Therefore it has been decided to update the methods as well as the estimates. External effects included in this analysis are: a) emissions to air, b) noise, c) traffic accidents, d) wear of infrastructure and e) congestion. External costs are seen as related to transport volume, intensity of the effect, degree of harm of the effect and unit cost of harm. The assumptions of these relations will be discussed. One problem with the shape of the cost function is whether the effect (e.g. noise) can be said to be proportional to the transport volume. In estimating the unit costs mainly willingness-to-pay (WTP) methods will be applied. The marginal external costs of each mode or vehicle type is compared to what is actually paid at the margin by these modes in taxes and charges that are related to transport volume. Small vans and passenger cars internalise approximately their external cost in the form of traffic charges. Airplanes pay a lot more than their external cost because they cover the total cost of the CAA (Central Aviation Administration). Buses, passenger trains and cargo vessels pay a very small part of external costs in the form of traffic related charges
Islamic Law: The Sources
The historiography of the early development of Islamic law, the Sharia, is highly contentious both among Muslims and secular historians. In economic field, this takes the form of the growth of an âIslamic banking systemâ, which avoids giving and taking interest on loans, as is forbidden in the Sharia. The more established groups such as the Islamic State does, however, actually often adopt a classical fiqh discourse, perhaps to bolster their image as a âserious Islamicâ. Any law that provides morality, justice and welfare, is âShariaâ as far as they are concerned. The traditional dual system of a Sharia court and a sultanâs or state court reappeared, only the state courts were not mazalim following Sharia principles, but civil courts practising the new westernized or modernized laws. The traditional Muslim historiography of fiqh does not, however, focus particularly on this âpractisedâ caliphal law, but rather on the development of groups of religious scholars who were particularly concerned with the law.acceptedVersio
Maintaining genetic integrity of coexisting wild and domestic populations : Genetic differentiation between wild and domestic Rangifer with long traditions of intentional interbreeding
The funding for the fieldwork and laboratory work for this study was provided by the ERC Advanced Grant 295458 Arctic Domus (PI D.G. Anderson). The writing and analysis was supported by ESRC ES-M0110548-1 JPI HUMANOR (PI D.G. Anderson). The sample set for Lake Nichatka was collected and deposited under a research programme of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. We thank Liv Midthjell for skilful laboratory analyses, Konstantin Klokov for help sourcing statistics on Russian reindeer populations, and Jan Heggenes for useful comments on an earlier version of this paper. A full list of project participants is in Appendix 2.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Wideband Characteristic Basis Functions in Radiation Problems
In this paper, the use of characteristic basis function (CBF) method, augmented by the application of asymptotic waveform evaluation (AWE) technique is analyzed in the context of the application to radiation problems. Both conventional and wideband CBFs are applied to the analysis of wire and planar antennas
Star Clusters in Virgo and Fornax Dwarf Irregular Galaxies
We present the results of a search for clusters in dwarf irregular galaxies
in the Virgo and Fornax Cluster using HST WFPC2 snapshot data. The galaxy
sample includes 28 galaxies, 11 of which are confirmed members of the Virgo and
Fornax clusters. In the 11 confirmed members, we detect 237 cluster candidates
and determine their V magnitudes, V-I colors and core radii. After statistical
subtraction of background galaxies and foreground stars, most of the cluster
candidates have V-I colors of -0.2 and 1.4, V magnitudes lying between 20 and
25th magnitude and core radii between 0 and 6 pc. Using H-alpha observations,
we find that 26% of the blue cluster candidates are most likely HII regions.
The rest of the cluster candidates are most likely massive (>10^4 Msol) young
and old clusters. A comparison between the red cluster candidates in our sample
and the Milky Way globular clusters shows that they have similar luminosity
distributions, but that the red cluster candidates typically have larger core
radii. Assuming that the red cluster candidates are in fact globular clusters,
we derive specific frequencies (S_N) ranging from ~0-9 for the galaxies.
Although the values are uncertain, seven of the galaxies appear to have
specific frequencies greater than 2. These values are more typical of
ellipticals and nucleated dwarf ellipticals than they are of spirals or Local
Group dwarf irregulars.Comment: 46 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables, accepted by AJ. Higher quality PS
version of entire paper available at
http://www.astro.washington.edu/seth/dirr_gcs.htm
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