58 research outputs found
Organizational culture and knowledge management success at project and organizational levels in contracting firms
No full textAuthor name used in this publication: Patrick S. W. Fong2009-2010 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishedGreen (AAM
The practice of access pricing : telecommunications in the United Kingdom
No full textTelecommunications was the first network utility to be privatized in the United Kingdom. Drawing on 15 years'experience and discussion in the field, the author shows the economic principles of regulation in general and access pricing in particular that have been implemented. British Telecommunications (BT), formed as a public enterprise in 1980-81, was privatized in 1984. Since then the approaches to regulation have changed in three broad periods: the duoply, the transition to competition, and the recently introduced normalization phase. Dealing with each period, the author focuses on how the actual implementation of access charges are determined, at the same time providing background needed on regulatory intervention generally. Rather than follow the model of competition for a common infrastructure, Oftel [the Office of Telecommunications, the regulatory agency]has encouraged competition between alternative networks, which benefits customers but involves duplication of fixed costs. As a result of Oftel's approach, customers have seen their bills reduced 50 percent in real terms since privatization. It is difficult to know how much to attribute this remarkable result to technological progress (BT halved its workforce in the same period), to regulatory intervention (Oftel set string caps until 1997), or to competition (there are hundreds of players in the market). The author contends more weight should probably be given to the first two. Entrants have not achieved big market shares, if one considers the asymmetric regulation that has been in place for more than a decade. Indirectly, at least, competition benefited consumers by applying discipline to BT's behavior. Oftel's approach was interventionist until 1997, when it began trying to normalize the industry, as authority overseeing competition. The odds on complete deregulation are slight, and some controls on industry will remain. In the longer term, Oftel should especially monitor anticompetitive practices and collusive behavior among the bigger players (BT, CWC, and cellulator operators), The United Kingdom's interconnection experience demonstrates the complexity of the problem and its relationship to other topics, such as tariff rebalancing, access deficit, and universal service. Although a bit ad hoc, the recent incentive regulation, with a network cap based on proper accounting procedures and engineering models, may represent the best practice available today in the telecommunications industry, says the author.Public Sector Economics&Finance,Decentralization,Knowledge Economy,Economic Theory&Research,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Education for the Knowledge Economy,Knowledge Economy,Economic Theory&Research,ICT Policy and Strategies
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Legal aspects of national implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention national authority provisions. Workshop I: The National Authority
No full textThis seminar is an excellent opportunity for all attendees to learn from each other about how the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) can become a foundation of arms control in Africa and around the world. The author discusses legal aspects of implementing the CWC`s national authority provisions. These implementing measures are universal, applying not only to the few States Parties that will declare and destroy chemical weapons, but also to the many States Parties that have never had a chemical weapons programme. This new need for national measures to implement multilateral arms control agreements has generated unease due to a perception that implementation may be burdensome and at odds with national law. In 1993, concerns arose that the complexity of integrating the treaty with national law would cause each nation to effectuate the Convention without regard to what other nations were doing, thereby engendering significant disparities in implementation steps among States Parties. As a result, the author prepared the Manual for National Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention late last year and presented it to each national delegation at the December 1993 meeting of the Preparatory Commission in The Hague. Here the author discusses progress among several States in actually developing implementing measures for the Convention`s national authority requirements. CWC legislation from Australia, Germany, Norway, South Africa, and Sweden were available at this writing in English through the PTS. Of course, it is important to note that this brief survey necessarily omitted examination of the existing {open_quotes}background{close_quotes} of other, related domestic laws that these signatories might also have adopted that affect CWC implementation. The author hopes that his brief review will give delegations a flavor of the choices that exist for national implementation of the CWC
Using high-resolution fishing effort estimates in the design of protection measurements for vulnerable marine ecosystems
No full textNo abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author. Cold-water corals (CWC) have high conservation value and are considered vulnerable marine ecosystems. The spatial distribution of CWC habitats is often patchy and restricted to specific bottom types or bathymetric features. To characterize the direct impact of commercial fisheries on CWC habitats it is necessary to quantify fishing effort at the highest spatial resolution possible. Here we utilized data from Electronic Logbook (ELB) and Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) to estimate fishing effort by otter trawlers and longliners at a resolution of 150-500 m. High-resolution fishing effort data allowed us to accurately delineate the fishery footprint and to evaluate its interactions with CWC habitats. During the establishment of new marine protected areas (MPAs), high resolution fishing effort data was essential to achieve conservation objectives while minimizing the closure of commercial fishing grounds
National Implementation Measures
No full textYesArticle IV of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention sets out the obligation for
States Parties to implement the BTWC through appropriate national measures. Although
some States have enacted such legislation, others have not and the Aum Shinrikyo incident in
Tokyo in March 1995 underlined the importance of appropriate penal legislation both to
implement the BTWC (and the Chemical Weapons Convention) and to criminalise any
development, production, stockpiling or acquisition of such weapons for terrorist or criminal
purposes. This Briefing Paper reviews the development of the language relating to Article IV
of the BTWC by the four Review Conferences, notes the requirements of the Chemical
Weapons Convention and then addresses the opportunity provided by the Ad Hoc Group
negotiations to strengthen the BTWC through stronger implementation measures
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The Chemical Weapons Convention -- Legal issues
No full textThe Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) offers a unique challenge to the US system of constitutional law. Its promise of eliminating what is the most purely genocidal type of weapon from the world`s arsenals as well as of destroying the facilities for producing these weapons, brings with it a set of novel legal issues. The reservations about the CWC expressed by US business people are rooted in concern about safeguarding confidential business information and protecting the constitutional right to privacy. The chief worry is that international verification inspectors will misuse their power to enter commercial property and that trade secrets or other private information will be compromised as a result. It has been charged that the Convention is probably unconstitutional. The author categorically disagrees with that view and is aware of no scholarly writing that supports it. The purpose of this presentation is to show that CWC verification activities can be implemented in the US consistently with the traditional constitutional regard for commercial and individual privacy. First, he very briefly reviews the types of verification inspections that the CWC permits, as well as some of its specific privacy protections. Second, he explains how the Fourth Amendment right to privacy works in the context of CWC verification inspections. Finally, he reviews how verification inspections can be integrated into these constitutional requirements in the SU through a federal implementing statute
RETRIEVAL OF CANOPY WATER CONTENT USING A NEW SPECTRAL AREA INDEX METHOD
No full textCanopy water content (CWC) is one of the most important biochemical properties of plants, which can be estimated from remote sensing data conveniently by using vegetation water indices. This paper started from the analysis of some existing indices and then proposed two novel indices to estimate CWC. First, the area under part of near infrared and shortwave infrared reflectance curve were calculated. Then two indices, Area-based Normalized Index (ABNI) and Area-Based Ratio Index (ABRI) were developed by using ratio method and normalization method, respectively. From the validation results, the new indices were found to exponentially correlate with CWC more significantly than some classical indices, and the determination coefficient (R-2) and root mean square error (RMSE) of the new method were 0.89 and 0.04, which indicated that the novel indices provided a promising way to monitor CWC.EICPCI-S(ISTP)[email protected]
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Legal aspects of national implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention transfer provisions
No full textThe author discusses legal aspects of implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention`s (CWC`s) export and import provisions. These implementing measures are universal, applying not only to the few States Parties that will declare and destroy chemical weapons, but also to the many States Parties that have never had a chemical weapons program. This new need for national measures to implement multilateral arms control agreements has generated unease due to a perception that implementation may be burdensome and at odds with national law. In 1993, concerns arose that the complexity of integrating the treaty with national law would cause each nation to effectuate the Convention without regard to what other nations were doing, thereby engendering significant disparities in implementation steps among States Parties. As a result, the author and his colleagues prepared the Manual for National Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Manual tries to increase understanding of the Convention by identifying its obligations and suggesting methods of meeting them. Here the author discusses progress among several States in actually developing implementing measures for the Convention`s transfer requirements. CWC legislation from australia, Germany, Norway, South Africa, and Sweden were available at this writing in English through the Provisional Technical Secretariat. Of course, it is important to note that this brief survey necessarily omitted examination of the existing background of other, related domestic laws that these signatories might also have adopted that affect CWC implementation
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Specificity of model facility agreements under the Chemical Weapons Convention
No full textThe Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) contains the most extensive verification inspection provision of any arms control agreement in history. Among its innovations are provisions for facility agreements to govern on-site verification inspections of certain facilities. A facility agreement is an agreement or arrangement between a State Party and the Organization [for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons] relating to a specific facility subject to on-site verification pursuant to Articles 4, 5 and 6. The purpose of this very brief paper is to discuss the value of specificity in the model facility agreements that are to serve as the basis for facility agreements. The views expressed herein are those of the author alone, and not necessarily those of the government of the US of America or any other institution. The model facility agreements are a key document to national implementation of the CWC. As explained in the Manual for National Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, facility agreements are among the important protections the CWC provides for confidential business information at facilities subject to CWC inspections. Thus, the structure of the models for these agreements will fundamentally determine how national implementation of the Convention will affect various private firms. A particularly salient question that must be addressed in drafting model facility agreements under the CWC is how specific they should be
Microphysical and thermodynamic phase analyses of Arctic low-level clouds measured above the sea ice and the open ocean in spring and summer
No full textAirborne in situ cloud measurements were carried out over the northern Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard in spring 2019 and summer 2020. In total, 811 min of low-level cloud observations were performed during 20 research flights above the sea ice and the open Arctic ocean with the Polar 5 research aircraft of the Alfred Wegener Institute. Here, we combine the comprehensive in situ cloud data to investigate the distributions of particle number concentration N, effective diameter Deff, and cloud water content CWC (liquid and ice) of Arctic clouds below 500 m altitude, measured at latitudes between 76 and 83∘ N. We developed a method to quantitatively derive the occurrence probability of their thermodynamic phase from the combination of microphysical cloud probe and Polar Nephelometer data. Finally, we assess changes in cloud microphysics and cloud phase related to ambient meteorological conditions in spring and summer and address effects of the sea ice and open-ocean surface conditions. We find median N from 0.2 to 51.7 cm−3 and about 2 orders of magnitude higher N for mainly liquid clouds in summer compared to ice and mixed-phase clouds measured in spring. A southerly flow from the sea ice in cold air outbreaks dominates cloud formation processes at temperatures mostly below −10 ∘C in spring, while northerly warm air intrusions favor the formation of liquid clouds at warmer temperatures in summer. Our results show slightly higher N in clouds over the sea ice compared to the open ocean, indicating enhanced cloud formation processes over the sea ice. The median CWC is higher in summer (0.16 g m−3) than in spring (0.06 g m−3), as this is dominated by the available atmospheric water content and the temperatures at cloud formation level. We find large differences in the particle sizes in spring and summer and an impact of the surface conditions, which modifies the heat and moisture fluxes in the boundary layer. By combining microphysical cloud data with thermodynamic phase information from the Polar Nephelometer, we find mixed-phase clouds to be the dominant thermodynamic cloud phase in spring, with a frequency of occurrence of 61 % over the sea ice and 66 % over the ocean. Pure ice clouds exist almost exclusively over the open ocean in spring, and in summer the cloud particles are most likely in the liquid water state.The comprehensive low-level cloud data set will help us to better understand the role of clouds and their thermodynamic phase in the Arctic radiation budget and to assess the performance of global climate models in a region of the world with the strongest anthropogenic climate change.Aircraft Noise and Climate Effect
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