Foreign Direct Investment in the Czech Republic

This paper evaluates foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Czech Republic and its regional development consequences after the collapse of state socialism. Two types of FDIs are identified: cross border export-oriented investments and market capture investments. The cross border export-oriented investments exploit low cost labor in the service of external markets and are typically concentrated in peripheral areas, mostly along the former West German border. This type of FDI is not likely to contribute to durable regional economies. The market capture investments involve both servicing the Czech market and integrating activities within a larger, multinational corporate network. This type of investment may create more durable sources of regional economic activity. A case study of the Volkswagen/Skoda joint venture is used to examine market capture investments and their consequences for regional development. This paper is based on interviews with plant managers and trade union leaders in companies with foreign investment, governmental officials at the various ministries and state agencies dealing with FDI, and information and data from the secondary sources.     

Distribution of thermal areas on an active lava flow field: Landsat observations of Kilauea,Hawaii, July 1991

A Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image acquired on 23 July 1991 recorded widespread activity associated with the Episode 48 of the Pu'u 'O'o-Kupaianaha eruption of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. The scene contains a very large number (>3500) of thermally elevated near infrared (0.8–2.35 m) pixels (each 900 m²), which enable the spatial distribution of volcanic activity to be identified. This activity includes a lava lake within Pu'u 'O'o cone, an active lava tube system (7.9 km in length) with skylights between the Kupaianaha lava shield and several ocean entry points, and extensive active surface flows (total area of 1.3 km²) within a much larger area of cooling flows (total16 km²). The production of an average flux density map from the TM data of the flow field, wherein the average flux density is defined in units of Wm^-2, allows for the chronology of emplacement of active and cooling flows to be determined. The flux density map reveals that there were at least three breakouts (>5000 Wm^-2) feeding active flows, but on the day that the data were collected the TM recorded a waning phase of surface activity in this area, based on the relatively large amount of intermediate power-emitting (cooling) flows compared to high power-emitting (active) flows. The production of a comparable flux density map for future eruptions would aid in the assessment of volcanic hazards if the data were available in near-real time.     

西藏北部双湖地区海相侏罗纪磁性地层研究

西藏北部双湖地区海相侏罗纪磁性地层采样剖面包括菊花山下侏罗统剖面和那底岗日中、上侏罗统剖面,采集样品共1231件。磁性地层采样工作是在实测地层(岩石地层和生物地层)剖面后进行的。采样使用国产手提式气压钻机,钻取的岩心直径为25 mm,长度为20～50 mm,用磁罗盘定向器定向取心。采样间距一般为0.5～5 m,但重要界面附近间距达到 5 cm。分析表明双湖地区海相侏罗系碳酸盐岩的天然剩磁普遍较高,一般达到6.7×10~(-3)～3.8×10~(-2)A/m。大多数样品在热退磁到500～600℃区间时,剩磁衰减了100％,表明岩石中所含磁性载体力磁铁矿。系统研究表明双湖地区晚三叠世与早侏罗世之间缺失一个NAUNESKI反向极性带,界面的时间缺失量约为2 Ma,野外表现为不整合接触关系。中、下侏罗统之间为假整合接触关系,沉积间断时间约为320 ka。     

Neutron star mergers in the context of the hadron–quark phase transition

The long awaited event of the detection of a gravitational wave from a binary neutron star merger and its electromagnetic counterparts marked the beginning of a new era in observational astrophysics. The brand-new field of gravitational wave astronomy combined with multi-messenger observations will uncover violent, highly energetic astrophysical events that could not be explored before by humankind. This article focuses on the presumable appearance of a hadron–quark phase transition and the formation of regions of deconfined quark matter in the interior of a neutron star merger product. The evolution of density and temperature profiles inside the inner region of the produced hypermassive/supramassive neutron star advises an incorporation of a hadron–quark phase transition in the equation of state of neutron star matter. The highly densed and hot neutron star matter of the remnant populate regions in the QCD phase diagram where a non neglectable amount of deconfined quark matter is expected to be present. If a strong hadron–quark phase transition would happen during the post-merger phase, it will be imprinted in the spectral properties of the emitted gravitational wave signal and might give an additional contribution to the dynamically emitted outflow of mass.     

Which way do you lean? Using slope aspect variations to understand Critical Zone processes and feedbacks

Soil‐mantled pole‐facing hillslopes on Earth tend to be steeper, wetter, and have more vegetation cover compared with adjacent equator‐facing hillslopes. These and other slope aspect controls are often the consequence of feedbacks among hydrologic, ecologic, pedogenic, and geomorphic processes triggered by spatial variations in mean annual insolation. In this paper we review the state of knowledge on slope aspect controls of Critical Zone (CZ) processes using the latitudinal and elevational dependence of topographic asymmetry as a motivating observation. At relatively low latitudes and elevations, pole‐facing hillslopes tend to be steeper. At higher latitudes and elevations this pattern reverses. We reproduce this pattern using an empirical model based on parsimonious functions of latitude, an aridity index, mean‐annual temperature, and slope gradient. Using this empirical model and the literature as guides, we present a conceptual model for the slope‐aspect‐driven CZ feedbacks that generate asymmetry in water‐limited and temperature‐limited end‐member cases. In this conceptual model the dominant factor driving slope aspect differences at relatively low latitudes and elevations is the difference in mean‐annual soil moisture. The dominant factor at higher latitudes and elevations is temperature limitation on vegetation growth. In water‐limited cases, we propose that higher mean‐annual soil moisture on pole‐facing hillslopes drives higher soil production rates, higher water storage potential, more vegetation cover, faster dust deposition, and lower erosional efficiency in a positive feedback. At higher latitudes and elevations, pole‐facing hillslopes tend to have less vegetation cover, greater erosional efficiency, and gentler slopes, thus reversing the pattern of asymmetry found at lower latitudes and elevations. Our conceptual model emphasizes the linkages among short‐ and long‐timescale processes and across CZ sub‐disciplines; it also points to opportunities to further understand how CZ processes interact. We also demonstrate the importance of paleoclimatic conditions and non‐climatic factors in influencing slope aspect variations. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Incorporating spatially heterogeneous infiltration capacity into hydrologic models with applications for simulating post‐wildfire debris flow initiation

Soils in post‐wildfire environments are often characterized by a low infiltration capacity with a high degree of spatial heterogeneity relative to unburned areas. Debris flows are frequently initiated by run‐off in recently burned steeplands, making it critical to develop and test methods for incorporating spatial variability in infiltration capacity into hydrologic models. We use Monte Carlo simulations of run‐off generation over a soil with a spatially heterogenous saturated hydraulic conductivity (K_s) to derive an expression for an aerially averaged saturated hydraulic conductivity ( ) that depends on the rainfall rate, the statistical properties of K_s, and the spatial correlation length scale associated with K_s. The proposed method for determining is tested by simulating run‐off on synthetic topography over a wide range of spatial scales. Results provide a simplified expression for an effective saturated hydraulic conductivity that can be used to relate a distribution of small‐scale K_s measurements to infiltration and run‐off generation over larger spatial scales. Finally, we use a hydrologic model based on to simulate run‐off and debris flow initiation at a recently burned catchment in the Santa Ana Mountains, CA, USA, and compare results to those obtained using an infiltration model based on the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number.     

An Outburst Detected in the Spectrum of Hd 6226

HD 6226 is a bright binary Be star at visual magnitude 6.81 (Hipparcos database). The emission and absorption phases occur in cycles, which are probably not periodic. The suspected period of about 630 days (derived from photometric measurements) is not confirmed by our spectroscopic survey. The latest emission phase developed in the beginning of 2003, then the emission strength systematically decreased and disappeared between July 21, 2003 and August 4, 2003. The last (absorption) spectrum was exposed on August 25, 2003. Unexpected very strong emission appeared in a spectrum exposed on October 28, 2003. A short-term photometric brightening followed this “outburst”. Long-term spectroscopic RV studies revealed a 2.615 d period modulated by a 29.7 d period (in the He I 6678 line), which perhaps may be interpreted as orbital period of a binary. Nevertheless, the physical nature of the dominant short 2.615 d period is not yet clear. The last detected emission episode has changed considerably our view of the interesting object HD 6226. We hope this study will reveal more details of the physical properties of the Be phenomenon.     

New Techniques and Limitations of Light Curve Analysis

The solution of light curves of eclipsing binaries provides the simplest way of measuring the basic physical parameters of stars. The development of computers and numerical methods enables us to perform an analysis of large amount of photometric data by comparing it to more and more sophisticated physical models which are also suitable for stellar systems with different peculiarities. Nevertheless, some parameters of stellar systems are poorly determined by light curves alone, and simultaneous fitting together with other data is preferable. The progress of instrumentation not only improves the precision and resolution of data, but also overcomes the classical gaps between stellar systems observable as visual, photometric and spectroscopic binaries. This opens new problems in the development of techniques of data analysis, which can be treated as a generalization of light curve modeling. Some of these directions are outlined here. In particular, the disentangling of spectra with line-profile variability due to proximity effects is discussed.     

Virtual MHD Jets on Grids

As network performance has outpaced computational power and storage capacity, a new paradigm has evolved to enable the sharing of geographically distributed resources. This paradigm is known as Grid computing and aims to offer access to distributed resource irrespective of their physical location. Many national, European and international projects have been launched during the last years trying to explore the Grid and to change the way we are doing our everyday work. In Ireland, we have started the CosmoGrid project that is a collaborative project aimed to provide high performance super-computing environments. This will help to address complex problems such as magnetohydrodynamic outflows and jets in order to model and numerically simulate them. Indeed, the numerical modeling of plasma jets requires massive computations, due to the wide range of spatial-temporal scales involved. We present here the first jet simulations and their corresponding models that could help to understand results from laboratory experiments.