The Globalization of Services: What Has Happened? What are the Implications?

Globalization has affected all facets of the world economy. This includes services, which in most economies are the single largest contributor to economic growth and employment. However, despite its importance to national output, the impact of globalization on services is only recently receiving the attention of researchers and policy-makers.

Status of the TMT site evaluation process

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is currently acquiring site characterization data at ve candidate sites. The site testing equipment includes instruments for measuring the seeing and seeing proles, meteorological conditions, cloudiness, precipitable water vapor, etc. All site testing equipment and data have gone through extensive calibrations and verications in order to assure that a reliable and quantitative comparison between the candidate sites will be possible. Here, we present an update on the status of the site selection work, the equipment characterizations and the resulting accuracies of our site selection data

The Thirty Meter Telescope Site Conditions Monitoring System

We examine the experiences and ideas from operating observatories regarding the measurements of the characteristics of the atmosphere that must be gathered within the locality of the observatory in order to support safe, efficient and scientifically optimized observatory operations as well as commissioning, performance monitoring and support the scientific analysis of telescope observations. We describe the expected requirements for the measurement capabilities of the the TMT Site Conditions Monitoring System (SCMS) and discuss how these plans are being developed with input from staff at operating observatories and active observational astronomers

Evaluation of sonic anemometers as highly sensitive optical turbulence measuring devices for the Thirty Meter Telescope site testing campaign

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) site testing programme is evaluating the use of sonic anemometers as a means of measuring the optical turbulence at the level of its MASS/DIMM telescopes (7m). Tests were performed where sonic anemometers were directly compared against a differenced fine wire thermocouple system. We also show here that fine wire thermocouples produce turbulence measurements comparable to those from a traditional microthermal probe system

Developing measures for valuing changes in biodiversity : final report

This document reports the findings from the DEFRA funded research project 'Developing measures for valuing changes in biodiversity'. The aim of the research was to develop an appropriate framework that will enable cost-effective and robust valuations of the total economic value of changes to biodiversity in the UK countryside. The research involved a review of ecological and economic literature on the valuation of biodiversity changes. The information gathered from this review, along with the findings from a series of public focus groups and an expert review of valuation methodologies, were used to develop a suite of valuation instruments that were used to measure the economic value of different aspects of biodiversity. Contingent valuation and choice experiment studies were administered to households in Cambridgeshire and Northumberland, while valuation workshops were conducted in Northumberland only. The data from these studies were also used to test for benefits transfer

Understanding radionuclide migration from the D1225 Shaft, Dounreay, Caithness, UK

A 65 m vertical shaft was sunk at Dounreay in the 1950s to build a tunnel for the offshore discharge of radioactive effluent from the various nuclear facilities then under construction. In 1959, the Shaft was licensed as a disposal facility for radioactive wastes and was routinely used for the disposal of ILW until 1970. Despite the operation of a hydraulic containment scheme, some radioactivity is known to have leaked into the surrounding rocks. Detailed logging, together with mineralogical and radiochemical analysis of drillcore has revealed four distinct bedding-parallel zones of contamination. The data show that Sr-90 dominates the bulk beta/gamma contamination signal, whereas Cs-137 and Pu-248/249 are found only to be weakly mobile, leading to very low activities and distinct clustering around the Shaft. The data also suggest that all uranium seen in the geosphere is natural in origin. At the smaller scale, contamination adjacent to fracture surfaces is present within a zone of enhanced porosity created by the dissolution of carbonate cements from the Caithness flagstones during long-term rockwater interactions. Quantitative modelling of radionuclide migration, using the multiphysics computer code QPAC shows the importance of different sorption mechanisms and different mineralogical substrates in the Caithnesss flagstones in controlling radionuclide migration

The Discovery of XY Sex Chromosomes in a \u3cem\u3eBoa\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3ePython\u3c/em\u3e

For over 50 years, biologists have accepted that all extant snakes share the same ZW sex chromosomes derived from a common ancestor [1, 2, 3], with different species exhibiting sex chromosomes at varying stages of differentiation. Accordingly, snakes have been a well-studied model for sex chromosome evolution in animals [1, 4]. A review of the literature, however, reveals no compelling support that boas and pythons possess ZW sex chromosomes [2, 5]. Furthermore, phylogenetic patterns of facultative parthenogenesis in snakes and a sex-linked color mutation in the ball python (Python regius) are best explained by boas and pythons possessing an XY sex chromosome system [6, 7]. Here we demonstrate that a boa (Boa imperator) and python (Python bivittatus) indeed possess XY sex chromosomes, based on the discovery of male-specific genetic markers in both species. We use these markers, along with transcriptomic and genomic data, to identify distinct sex chromosomes in boas and pythons, demonstrating that XY systems evolved independently in each lineage. This discovery highlights the dynamic evolution of vertebrate sex chromosomes and further enhances the value of snakes as a model for studying sex chromosome evolution

Reviews

Europe In the Round CD‐ROM, Guildford, Vocational Technologies, 1994

Open questions in site characterization and turbulence parameter measurements

With the development of increasingly larger and more complex telescopes and instrumentation, site testing and characterization efforts also increase in both magnitude and complexity. This happens because the investment into larger observatories is higher and because new technologies, such as adaptive optics, require knowledge about parameters that did not matter previously, such as the vertical distribution of turbulence. We present examples of remaining questions which, to date, are not generally addressed by "standard" site characterization efforts, either because they are technically not (yet) feasible or because they are impractical. We center our observations around the experience gained during the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) site testing effort with an emphasis on turbulence measurements, but our findings are applicable in general to other current and future projects as well