Attractive internal wave patterns

This paper gives background information for the fluid dynamics video on internal wave motion in a trapezoidal tank.Comment: 2 pg, movie at two resolutions _low(Low-resolution) and _hr(High-resolution

Attractive internal wave patterns

This paper gives background information for the fluid dynamics video on internal wave motion in a trapezoidal tank.Comment: 2 pg, movie at two resolutions _low(Low-resolution) and _hr(High-resolution

Economic development: a review of key themes in the international literature

This report has been commissioned by the Ministry of Transport to provide an overview of how economies can be supported to develop and grow. It focuses on how capabilities can be expanded through: investment in physical capital; investment in human capital (education); and investment in new knowledge creation and utilisation. The AERU at Lincoln University was commissioned by the Ministry of Transport to prepare a report reviewing the economics literature on approaches to economic development. The report does not aim to consider the relationship between transport and the economy: this will take place at a subsequent stage. Instead, the purpose of the report is to provide a general readership with an overview of the major themes in research by economists on how economies can be supported to develop and grow

Is a Specialist Employment Court a Better Forum for women?

A series of seminars on "Women and Employment" were held at Victoria University of Wellington in July 1997. The topic of the seminar was whether a specialist employment court is a better forum for women. The following article is based on Maxine Gay's speech at the seminar. She believes that although the Employment Court may have made gender biased decisions, the Court should nevertheless be retained. She argues that a specialist employment court is important for women because it recognises that the employment contract is one in which the parties have unequal power and it should therefore be treated differently from other contracts. She takes the view that the suggestion by the Business Round Table and Employers' Federation to abolish the Employment Court is part of a wider agenda to casualise the labour force and reduce the rights of employees.&nbsp

The contribution of Antarctic-related activities to the New Zealand Economy

In 2007, the AERU at Lincoln University was commissioned by the Canterbury Development Corporation (funded by Antarctica New Zealand) to prepare a report on The Contribution of Antarctic-Related Activities to the Canterbury and New Zealand Economies (Saunders et al, 2007). That report concentrated on the local and national impacts of Antarctic-related activities based in Canterbury. Thus, it included Antarctic-related research at the Gateway Antarctica programme of the University of Canterbury, for example, but not research at the Antarctic Research Centre of Victoria University of Wellington. The 2007 study found that the direct impact on the Canterbury economy was at least $87.6 million per annum, which was estimated to be associated with 676 full-time equivalent jobs in the region. The direct impact on the New Zealand economy was estimated to be$133.2 million, supporting 965 full-time equivalent jobs. Taking into account multiplier impacts, the direct, indirect and induced impacts amounted to $155.1 million in Canterbury and$282.0 million in New Zealand. In 2013, Antarctica New Zealand commissioned the AERU to update and extend its 2007 study. In particular, the AERU was asked to consider significant Antarctic-related activities outside as well as inside the Canterbury region. The role of Christchurch as a ‘gateway city’ to the Antarctic means that his report retains a focus on the Canterbury region, but the authors have attempted a wider national scope in its analysis

Thermal intermodulation backaction in a high-cooperativity optomechanical system

The pursuit of room temperature quantum optomechanics with tethered nanomechanical resonators faces stringent challenges owing to extraneous mechanical degrees of freedom. An important example is thermal intermodulation noise (TIN), a form of excess optical noise produced by mixing of thermal noise peaks. While TIN can be decoupled from the phase of the optical field, it remains indirectly coupled via radiation pressure, implying a hidden source of backaction that might overwhelm shot noise. Here we report observation of TIN backaction in a high-cooperativity, room temperature cavity optomechanical system consisting of an acoustic-frequency Si$_3$N$_4$ trampoline coupled to a Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity. The backaction we observe exceeds thermal noise by 20 dB and radiation pressure shot noise by 40 dB, despite the thermal motion being 10 times smaller than the cavity linewidth. Our results suggest that mitigating TIN may be critical to reaching the quantum regime from room temperature in a variety of contemporary optomechanical systems.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Mesozoic evolution of West Antarctica and the Weddell Sea Basin: new paleomagnetic constraints

Paleomagnetic data from the Antarctic Peninsula and our recent results from the Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains block suggest that since the Middle Jurassic these two West Antarctic blocks have undergone little relative movement and together have rotated relative to the East Antarctic craton. New data from Lower Cretaceous rocks from the Thurston Island region of West Antarctica suggest that on the basis of paleomagnetic constraints, the Antarctic Peninsula, Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains and Thurston Island blocks define a single entity which we call Weddellia; some motion between these blocks is possible within the limits of the paleomagnetic data. Between the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, Weddellia remained attached to West Gondwanaland while East Antarctica moved southward (dextrally) relative to Weddellia. From the Early Cretaceous to mid-Cretaceous, Weddellia rotated clockwise 30° and moved sinistrally approximately 2500 km relative to East Antarctica, to its present-day position. We suggest the Early to mid-Cretaceous to be the time of the main if not initial opening of the Weddell Sea