IGS Technical Report 2015

Applications of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to Earth Sciences are numerous. The International GNSS Service (IGS), a federation of government agencies, universities and research institutions, plays an increasingly critical role in support of GNSS–related research and engineering activities. This Technical Report 2015 includes contributions from the IGS Governing Board, the Central Bureau, Analysis Centers, Data Centers, station and network operators, and others highlighting status and important activities, changes and results that took place and were achieved during 2015.

Agglomeration Economies in Japan: Technical Efficiency, Growth and Unemployment

This paper examines if the effects of agglomeration economies get manifested in technical efficiency and generate faster economic growth and higher (lower) levels of employment (unemployment). Using the prefecture level data for each of the two-digit groups of industries in Japan, the paper estimates region-specific technical efficiency index based on the stochastic frontier production function framework. The results of the factor analysis show that in most of the industry-groups (with a few exceptions) efficiency has a positive association with external scale variable(s). Though the relationship is not seen to be very strong, it would be equally erroneous to ignore the effect of agglomeration economies on efficiency. In the case of some of the light goods industries the agglomeration effect is relatively stronger. Further, economic growth varies positively with external scale variable(s) and unemployment rate tends to fall with respect to growth and concentration. All this tends to suggest that measures against industrial concentration may be counter-productive, particularly in the context of globalisation when countries are in dire need of raising productivity.

Skill distribution and comparative advantage: a comparison of China and India

This paper empirically examines the different comparative advantages of two emerging economic giants, China and India, in relation to the different skill distribution patterns in each country. By utilizing industry export data on China and India from 1983 to 2000, we find that a country with a greater dispersion of skills (i.e., India, especially in the earlier years) has higher exports in industries with shorter production chains, whereas a country with a more equal dispersion of skills (i.e., China, especially in the later years) is found to have higher exports in industries with longer production chains. The causal relationship is fairly robust across different specifications. This empirical evidence supports our assumption that the likely mechanism for these results is the negative impact of low-skilled workers on input quality, which accumulates and becomes larger as the length of production chains and the proportion of low-skilled workers in the economy increase.

How does country risk matter for foreign direct investment?

In this paper, we aim to identify the political and financial risk components that matter most for the activities of multinational corporations. Our paper is the first paper to comprehensively examine the impact of various components of not only political risk but also financial risk on inward FDI, from both long-run and short-run perspectives. Using a sample of 93 countries (including 60 developing countries) for the period 1985-2007, we find that among the political risk components, government stability, socioeconomic conditions, investment profile, internal conflict, external conflict, corruption, religious tensions, democratic accountability, and ethnic tensions have a close association with FDI flows. In particular, socioeconomic conditions, investment profile, and external conflict appear to be the most influential components of political risk in attracting foreign investment. Among the financial risk components, only exchange rate stability yields statistically significant positive coefficients when estimated only for developing countries. In contrast, current account as a percentage of exports of goods and services, foreign debt as a percentage of GDP, net international liquidity as the number of months of import cover, and current account as a percentage of GDP yield negative coefficients in some specifications. Thus, multinationals do not seem to consider seriously the financial risk of the host country.

Real Options: A Tool for Managing Technical Risk in a Mine Plan

NPV is a static measure of project value which does not discriminate between levels of internal and external risk in project valuation. Due to current investment project?s characteristics, a much more complex model is needed: one that includes the value of flexibility and the different risk levels associated with variables subject to uncertainty (price, costs, exchange rates, grade and tonnage of the deposits, cut off grade, among many others). Few of these variables present any correlation or can be treated uniformly. In this context, Real Option Valuation (ROV) arose more than a decade ago, as a mainly theoretical model with the potential for simultaneous calculation of the risk associated with such variables. This paper reviews the literature regarding the application of Real Options Valuation in mining, noting the prior focus on external risks, and presents a case study where ROV is applied to quantify risk associated to mine planning.

Standards and specifications to manage accessibility issues in e-learning

Despite the acknowledged need of providing a personalized and adaptive learning process for all, current learning management systems do not properly cover personalization and accessibility issues and they are still struggling to support the reusability requirements coming from the pervasive usage of standards. There is a lack of frameworks for providing layered-based infrastructure covering the interoperability required to manage the whole range of standards, applications and services needed to meet accessibility and adaptations needs of lifelong learning services.

Technical Challenges in the Construction of Gothic Vaults: The Gothic Theory of Structural Design

The construction of a Gothic vault implied the solution of several technical challenges. The literature on Gothic vault construction is quite large and its growth continues steadily. The main challenge of any structure is that, during and after construction, it must be "safe", that is, it must not collapse. Indeed, it must be amply safe, able to support different loads for long periods of time. Masonry architecture has shown its structural safety for centuries or millennia. The Pantheon of Rome stands today after almost 2,000 years without having needed any structural reinforcement (of course, the survival of any building implies continuous maintenance) . Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, finished in the 6th century AD, has withstood not only the dead loads but also many severe earthquakes . Finally, the Gothic cathedrals, with their appearance of weakness, are• more than a half millennium old. The question arises of what the source of this amazing strength is and how the illiterate master masons were able to design such daring and safe structures . This question is usually evaded in manuals of Gothic architecture. This is quite surprising, the structure being a fundamental part of Gothic buildings. The present article aims to give such an explanation, which has been studied in detail elsewhere. In the first part, the Gothic design methods "V ill be discussed. In the second part, the validity of these methods wi11 be verified within the frame of the modern theory of masonry structures . References have been reduced to a minimum to make the text simpler and more direct.

Alternative Assessment in Engineering Language Education: The case of the Technical University of Madrid

This article describes a research project involving students from nine different engineering degrees at the Technical university of Madrid. The purpose of the project was to analyze the use of peer and self assessment and the students? attitudes toward alternative assessment procedures.

Polypropylene fiber-reinforced self-compacting concrete for the reconstruction of the cathedral of La Laguna, Canary Island, Spain

High performance materials are needed for the reconstruction of such a singular building as a cathedral, since in addition to special mechanical properties, high self compact ability, high durability and high surface quality, are specified. Because of the project’s specifications, the use of polypropylene fiber-reinforced, self-compacting concrete was selected by the engineering office. The low quality of local materials and the lack of experience in applying macro polypropylene fiber for structural reinforcement with these components materials required the development of a pretesting program. To optimize the mix design, performance was evaluated following technical, economical and constructability criteria. Since the addition of fibers reduces concrete self-compactability, many trials were run to determine the optimal mix proportions. The variables introduced were paste volume; the aggregate skeleton of two or three fractions plus limestone filler; fiber type and dosage. Two mix designs were selected from the preliminary results. The first one was used as reference for self-compactability and mechanical properties. The second one was an optimized mix with a reduction in cement content of 20 kg/m3and fiber dosage of 1 kg/m3. For these mix designs, extended testing was carried out to measure the compression and flexural strength, modulus of elasticity, toughness, and water permeability resistance

TechnoFusion: new Spanish singular scientific-technical facility for fusion research

Technofusion is the scientific&technical installation for fusion research in Spain, based on three pillars: • It is an open facility to European users. • It is a facility with instrumentation not accesible to small research groups. • It is designed to be closely coordiated with the European Fusion Program. With a budget of 80-100 M€ over five years, several top laboratories will be constructed