The effects of air transportation on the movement of labor

The effects of the deregulation of airlines markets and the new technologies that have been introduced into air transportation have been heavily studied. Much of this analysis has been on the impacts on the industry and the immediate welfare implications for passengers and, to a lesser extent, cargo consignors. This study looks at the longer-term effects of the modern air transportation system on labor markets and labor migration. The growth of the service sector, the emergence of more flexible manufacturing techniques, the reduction in trade-barriers, and the creation of more sophisticated financial markets have led to greater mobility in production and in capital movement. This has been explored to some extent. Labor is, however, also more mobile - for example, since the admission of Poland to the European Union some 465,000 Polish workers have joined the UK labor market. Air transportation facilitates easier migration, makes short-term, long-distance migration viable, and allows migrants to maintain contact with their home country. Within larger countries, such as the US, there has also been a growth in long distance “week-day” migration as spouses work in different parts of the country to be reunited at weekends. The study makes use of aggregate data to look at trends in international labor movements particularly concerning the European situation, and, to a lesser extent, at recent developments within the US. It is concerned both with what is going on in terms of the use being made of air transportation by migrants and the light that this may shed on migration theory.

Source and accumulation of gas hydrate in the northern margin of the South China Sea

The northern South China Sea (NSCS) experienced continuous evolution from an active continental margin in the late Mesozoic to a stable passive continental margin in the Cenozoic. It is generally believed that the basins in the NSCS evolved as a result of Paleocene–Oligocene crustal extension and associated rifting processes. This type of sedimentary environment provides a highly favourable prerequisite for formation of large-scale oil- and gas–fields as well as gas hydrate accumulation. Based on numerous collected data, combined with the tectonic and sedimentary evolution, a preliminary summary is that primitive coal-derived gas and reworked deep gas provided an ample gas source for thermogenic gas hydrate, but the gas source in the superficial layers is derived from humic genesis. In recent years, the exploration and development of the NSCS oil, gas and gas hydrate region has provided a basis for further study. A number of 2D and 3D seismic profiles, the synthetic comparison among bottom simulating reflector (BSR) coverage characteristics, the oil-gas area, the gas maturity and the favourable hydrate-related active structural zones have provided opportunities to study more closely the accumulation and distribution of gas hydrate. The BSR has a high amplitude, with high amplitude reflections below it, which is associated with gas chimneys and pockmarks. The high amplitude reflections immediately beneath the BSR are interpreted to indicate the presence of free gas and gas hydrate. The geological and geochemical data reveal that the Cenozoic northern margin of the NSCS has developed coal-derived gas which forms an abundant supply of thermogenic gas hydrate. Deep-seated faults and active tectonic structures facilitate the gas migration and release. The thermogenic gas hydrate and biogenic gas are located at different depths, have a different gas source genesis and should be separately exploited. Based on the proven gas hydrate distribution zone, we have encircled and predicted the potential hydrate zones. Finally, we propose a simple model for the gas hydrate accumulation system in the NSCS Basin.     

International students’ post-graduation migration plans and the search for home

Research on international student’s post migration plans treats migration as a binary stay-return category and focuses on push-pull factors as the cause of this migration. In this paper we expand the definition of migration and consider the role of life experiences and aspirations, particularly the concept of home. We ask, what are the different conceptualizations of home and how are these tied to differential migratory plans? We analyze data from 232 interviews with international students from more than 50 countries who attended a flagship public university in Canada from 2006–2013.We find that students have four ways of thinking about home: as host, as ancestral, as cosmopolitan, and as nebulous. These understandings of home correspond to particular post-migration plans. While students who view home as a host plan to stay, and those who view home as ancestral plan to return, those with cosmopolitan and nebulous conceptions of home have more open migration plans.     

Scenarios for the Future Population of Sydney

The period 1996-2001 has witnessed a refocusing of population growth on Sydney and Melbourne as both cities have developed significant concentrations of so-called 'new economy' jobs and taken on, to greater or lesser extents, the characteristics of global cities. The consequence of these trends, for Sydney most particularly, is population growth. This paper establishes this demographic reality by describing recent demographic trends in Sydney and possible future scenarios for Sydney's population, given differing levels of fertility, internal migration and international migration. A related future trend is also traced--that the number of households in Sydney will grow more rapidly than the population due to changes in household structure. This raises the issue of how and where these households will be accommodated, given the relative land shortage in the Sydney Statistical Division and given that there is no doubt that planners in New South Wales will be attempting to maintain and enhance Sydney's status as a global city. In sum, the paper argues that Sydney planners should be preparing for growth of around one million people in the next 20 years and a further one million in the following 30 years. To maintain that potential future residents of Sydney can be redirected to other parts of New South Wales is a vain hope.     

探地雷达图像的正演合成与偏移处理

本文讨论了射线追踪法实现二维地电断面的探地雷达图像的正演合成问题,其中包括二维地电断面的数字拟合、多层连续界面介质中高频电磁波的反射与透射统一的运动学边界方程;根据Huygen's-Fresnel原理导出了均匀介质中二维管状体模型的衍射雷达波的计算公式;给出了用射线追踪法合成的二维地电模型的探地雷达图像;用衍射波公式合成了二维管状模型的雷达图像,并与物理模拟作了比较.在此基础上,用Kirchhoff积分法对数字模拟与物理模拟记录的雷达图像作了偏移处理,并给出了实例.     

Measuring the environmental dimensions of human migration: The demographer's toolkit

In recent years, the empirical literature linking environmental factors and human migration has grown rapidly and gained increasing visibility among scholars and the policy community. Still, this body of research uses a wide range of methodological approaches for assessing environment–migration relationships. Without comparable data and measures across a range of contexts, it is impossible to make generalizations that would facilitate the development of future migration scenarios. Demographic researchers have a large methodological toolkit for measuring migration as well as modeling its drivers. This toolkit includes population censuses, household surveys, survival analysis and multi-level modeling. This paper's purpose is to introduce climate change researchers to demographic data and methods and to review exemplary studies of the environmental dimensions of human migration. Our intention is to foster interdisciplinary understanding and scholarship, and to promote high quality research on environment and migration that will lead toward broader knowledge of this association.     

小尺度散射体稀疏最小二乘逆时偏移方法研究

地震勘探方法在深部固体矿产资源勘探中发展潜力巨大,同时也面临挑战.由于固体矿产资源地下分布呈现陡峭构造、尺度小,物性差异小的特点,常规偏移方法对小尺度矿体成像的分辨率提高有限.本文研究了一种基于稀疏促进约束的最小二乘逆时偏移方法.首先,将非均匀分布的矿体等效为随机介质,建立小尺度扰动的矿体模型;其次,改进现有最小二乘偏移方法,以稀疏模型为先验信息约束成像结果,并通过Curvelet变换压缩成像空间,经过多次迭代计算,可以提高小尺度散射体的成像分辨率;再次,对炮域记录进行随机震源编码,减少成像所需的炮集个数,通过稀疏促进约束条件,降低串扰噪声引起的成像误差.通过庐枞金属矿模型数值计算,验证本文方法可以较好的成像包含小尺度散射体的金属矿地质模型.

     

Using a migration systems approach to understand the link between climate change and urbanisation in Malawi

Most scholarship on rural–urban migration in Sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates that migrants tend to move in a “circular” fashion and only spend short periods of time in cities before returning home to rural villages. However, some scholars working on the impacts of climate change on migration suggest that deteriorating environmental conditions may undermine rural livelihoods and lead people to move to cities for longer periods of time. If this is true, then climate change threatens to accelerate urbanisation and lead to renewed stress on urban infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to explore these positions and we do so by collecting survey [n = 241], in-depth interview [n = 75] and focus group [n = 123 participants] data from rural and urban Malawi. Two key results stand out as significant. The first is that migrants in Malawi's capital city tend to stay in the urban environment for longer periods of time than conventional understandings of migration would predict. The second key result is that climate change may actually lead, in the case of Malawi, to reverse (i.e urban–rural) migration. This is because many of the people in Malawi's cities depend on products produced in rural environments (e.g. food and fuelwood). If climate change undermines rural livelihoods, then many urban residents will find the basis of their livelihoods removed and will likely respond by moving back to rural villages. Overall, our results, therefore, suggest that in at least one case the effect of climate change on migration may not be to increase migration towards cities but to stimulate an exodus from cities and back to the rural countryside.     

地震波干涉偏移及预条件正则化最小二乘偏移成像方法对比

地震波干涉偏移和偏移反演成像是近年来十分活跃的两个研究领域.干涉偏移提供了一个新的地震波数据成像工具,而偏移反演则提供了高逼近度地震成像.二者的共同目的是改善传统直接偏移方法的成像效果,展宽成像区域并提高成像的分辨率.本文研究干涉偏移方法和偏移反演方法对于地震成像效果的影响,探讨二者在提高成像分辨率上的异同.对于偏移反演,通过建立正则化模型,研究了预条件共轭梯度迭代正则化方法及改进措施,并通过绕射点模型数值模拟验证了该方法比直接偏移能够提高振幅的保真度和成像的分辨率.对于干涉偏移和偏移反演这两种方法,对层速度地震模型进行了数值模拟.结果表明干涉偏移和偏移反演成像方法比传统的偏移方法在成像效果上是更加有效的,因而对于实际的地震成像问题很有应用前景.     

施甸5级震群前中短-短临的地震活动参数动态演化

通过2001年施甸5级震群前地震学各项参数异常的动态追踪，研究了中强地震孕育、发生的中短—短临的演化过程。结果表明：在云南地区出现b值、小震调制比、波速比等地震活动性参数异常以及中强地震的有规律迁移的中期异常背景上，出现了孕震区的频度、b值、应变加速等群体中短异常，以及云南省内的3、4级地震连续增频、3级日频次异常和显的3、4级地震平静的短临异常。特别是3、4级地震异常平静，标志了明显的临震信息，并初步探讨了中强地震连续发生中如何识别单个地震的震兆问题。