Tourism in Iran: central control and indigeneity

Iran has a long history and tradition of accommodating visitors and travellers, as well as having a great number of minority cultures within its borders, reflecting its geographic location astride some of the major trade routes in the Middle East. Despite what could be seen as great advantages in the competition for tourism, the present powers in Iran have downplayed the potential role of indigenous groups in tourism, just as they have downplayed the role that tourism could have in the country at large. By exercising strong central and religious power and control and putting forward a strong national image, Iran has discouraged tourism development among its indigenous communities. The dominant centralised power structure of the country is in sharp contrast to that in Nepal for example, described in the previous section, and community-based tourism is hard to find, although there are examples of good individual operations, normally at a small scale. Iran symbolises, perhaps, the dominance of a central uniform control over tourism compared to a local indigenous variety of developments

The national impact of regional policy : policy simulation with labour market constraints in a two-regional computable general equilibrium model

The first step in a comprehensive evaluation of regional policy is to identify its full spatial impact. This involves two tasks. The first is to determine the form and strength of inter-regional linkages. The second is to specify the national constraints within which the system of regional economies operates. In this paper we use simulation results from a two-region Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model of Scotland and the rest of the UK (RUK) to investigate these issues. The inter-regional linkages incorporate trade and income flows, inter-regional capital mobility and migration. The constraint that we focus on is an overall national population constraint and its impact on regional wage determination. The paper is structured in the following way. Section 2 outlines the AMOSRUK modelling framework. Section 3 describes the alternative labour-market model configurations used in the simulations. Section 4 reports the results for the model simulation and Section 5 is a short conclusion

Attribution of pollution generation to local private and public demands in a small open economy: results from a SAM-based neo-classical linear attribution system for Scotland

For the construction of environmental accounts, Input Output (IO) systems have a number of clear advantages. First IO is an internally consistency, rigorous accounting framework. Second, the characteristics of IO systems are well known. Third, IO systems focus on the link between intermediate and final demands, and can attribute the indirect, intermediate use of commodities to elements of final demand. However, there are concerns over the degree of appropriateness of the standard IO attribution approaches (McGregor et al, 2001a). If standard Type I output-pollution multiplier, especially in the case of a very open economy such as Scotland, responsibility for much pollution can be attributed to external sources of demand. Furthermore, when Type II output-pollution multipliers are utilised, local private consumption virtually disappears as a pollution source. This seems to be at variance with the common environmental approach, which would wish to place domestic consumption at the centre of pollution attribution

Movement demands and perceived wellness associated with preseason training camp in NCAA Division I college football players

The aims of this study were to examine the movement demands of preseason practice in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college football players using portable global positioning system (GPS) technology and to assess perceived wellness associated with preseason practice to determine whether GPS-derived variables from the preceding day influence perceived wellness the following day. Twenty-nine players were monitored using GPS receivers (Catapult Innovations, Melbourne, Australia) during 20 preseason practices. Individual observations (n = 550) were divided into offensive and defensive position groups. Movement variables including low-, medium-, high-intensity, and sprint distance, player load, and acceleration and deceleration distance were assessed. Perceived wellness ratings (n = 469) were examined using a questionnaire which assessed fatigue, soreness, sleep quality, sleep quantity, stress, and mood. A 1-way analysis of variance for positional movement demands and multilevel regressions for wellness measures were used, followed by post hoc testing to evaluate the relational significance between categorical outcomes of perceived wellness scores and movement variables. Results demonstrated significantly (p ≤ 0.05) greater total, high-intensity, and sprint distance, along with greater acceleration and deceleration distances for the defensive back and wide receiver position groups compared with their respective offensive and defensive counterparts. Significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences in movement variables were demonstrated for individuals who responded more or less favorably on each of the 6 factors of perceived wellness. Data from this study provide novel quantification of the position-specific physical demands and perceived wellness associated with college football preseason practice. Results support the use of position-specific training and individual monitoring of college football players

A study to define meteorological uses and performance requirements for the Synchronous Earth Observatory Satellite

The potential meteorological uses of the Synchronous Earth Observatory Satellite (SEOS) were studied for detecting and predicting hazards to life, property, or the quality of the environment. Mesoscale meteorological phenonmena, and the observations requirements for SEOS are discussed along with the sensor parameters

CdSxSe1-x/ZnS semiconductor nanocrystal laser with sub 10kW/cm² threshold and 40nJ emission output at 600 nm

A colloidal quantum dot laser emitting at 600 nm with a sub 10kW/cm2 threshold at 5ns pulse pumping is reported. The device has a second order distributed feedback cavity for vertical emission and incorporates a bilayer planar waveguide structure based on a film of yellow-orange alloyed-core/shell CdSxSe1-x/ZnS quantum dots over-coated with polyvinyl alcohol. A study of the amplified spontaneous regime indicates that the quantum dot gain region behaves like a quasi-three level system and that the bilayer structure design increases the modal gain compared to a single layer of quantum dots. An output of 40nJ per pulse is measured for a total pump-to-signal efficiency above threshold of 3%