Jeffrey P. Cohen and Mike Brown
Airports are the portals where international air transport networks, which are increasingly important in a globalized, services-oriented economy, intersect with regional and…
Abstract
Airports are the portals where international air transport networks, which are increasingly important in a globalized, services-oriented economy, intersect with regional and metropolitan ground transportation networks. Our hypothesis is that, at this nexus, the degree of international connectivity at an airport and distance from the airport manifests itself in the value of commercial properties. As such airports are shaping the urban form around them and highlight the importance of integrated metropolitan and airport planning. Looking at Canada’s two largest international airports at Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, BC, and controlling for other factors, we see evidence that commercial properties decrease in value as distance to the airport increases and increase in value as the range of international frequencies and destinations available at the airport increase. We introduce a new concept of land-use at and around airports of “aviation-dependent” which would include hotels and corporate head offices, in addition to the traditional “aviation-related” and “aviation-compatible” uses. We see the effects of distance and connectivity are particularly pronounced on commercial properties occupied by aviation-dependent uses.
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This research estimates a multi-product flexible cost function of airport variable costs. Data for the analysis are a panel of 50 airports from 1996 to 2008. Output includes…
Abstract
This research estimates a multi-product flexible cost function of airport variable costs. Data for the analysis are a panel of 50 airports from 1996 to 2008. Output includes domestic and international departures, non-aeronautical operating revenues, and the number of transport workload units, where a workload unit is a passenger or the equivalent of a 220 pound packet of cargo. The quasi-fixed factor is the equivalent number of 10,000′ × 150′ runways at an airport. After correcting for first-order serial correlation, the analysis finds that airports operate under constant returns to runway utilization and multi-product decreasing returns to scale, production technology is consistent with product specific returns to capacity utilization and anti-complementarity across outputs, and general airport operations have input substitution possibilities with personnel and contractual repair/maintenance inputs. The study also finds 1.05% technology progress over the sample period, due to strong growth prior to 2001, with similar productivity growth rates for large and medium hubs.
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This chapter examines the effects that airports have had on economic development in cities from 1950 to 2010. It uses a novel dataset consisting of previously unexploited data on…
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This chapter examines the effects that airports have had on economic development in cities from 1950 to 2010. It uses a novel dataset consisting of previously unexploited data on the origins and history of the aviation system in the United States. Applying the method of synthetic controls to a set of medium and small airports, I examine both the overall impacts and the heterogeneity within the outcomes of various airports. Then, I use regression analysis to determine key factors differentiating successful airports from less successful ones, as it pertains particularly to population and employment growth. I find that, first, on average, cities have benefited from airports over this period. Airports, overall, provided a causal contribution of 0.2– 0.6% per year on population and employment growth over the time period. Second, I show that city-level factors contributing to airport success include: (1) closer proximity to a major research university, (2) a capital city location, and (3) climate factors, particularly higher January mean temperatures and/or hours of sunshine. City size is a consideration as well; cities in larger metropolitan areas, with larger shares of employment in nontradables in the 1950s, were also better positioned to reap the benefits that airports provided on city growth. Significant differences were not found across regions, airport governance structures, or other factors.
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Barbara Cohen, Joel A. Cohen, Paul Gray, Tiffany Anderson and Cheryl Kester
Stephen Agyefi-Mensah, Zoya Evans Kpamma and Daniel Ebo Hagan
Compliance with standard specifications in stairway design and construction, particularly the step geometry, is imperative for the safety and usability of stairs. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Compliance with standard specifications in stairway design and construction, particularly the step geometry, is imperative for the safety and usability of stairs. The purpose of this study, was to assess the compliance of stair step geometry parameters with standard specifications in selected public buildings in Ghana. Specifically, the study investigated the prevalence of deviations in step geometry parameters from standard provisions; how significant these deviations are in comparison, and by theoretical association, the potential risk of accidents.
Design/methodology/approach
Field measurement of the geometric parameters of a total of 1954 steps in 204 flights of stairs within 28 university buildings was undertaken using a calibrated Multi Digit Pro + digital spirit level and a tape measure following the Nose-to-Nose Method. The results were analyzed using in Microsoft Excel 2016 and Minitab 18 and interpreted based on mean values, one-sample t-test and percentages.
Findings
Although some parameters generally complied with standard specifications, dimensional inconsistencies in risers and treads of adjacent steps were most prevalent, and significantly at margins far above standard specifications. The findings of the study show the unique limitation of the step geometry design requirements specified in the current Ghana National Building Code and the National Building Regulation, and by association, the potential risk of accidents and discomfort in the use of stairs in public buildings such as those on university campuses.
Practical implications
The observed deviations in the dimensions of risers and treads point to a lack of strict compliance with standard specifications in the design and construction of stairs. Apart from engaging skilled artisans, and intensifying supervision in stair construction, development control authorities in Ghana need to strengthen inspection of stairs during construction to ensure and enforce compliance.
Originality/value
Findings of the study provide insight into stairway design, as well as stair safety and usability in a developing world context, and allows for a more comprehensive study of stair-related accidents and discomfort associated with stairs in public buildings as a basis for the review of standards and codes in Ghana and other developing countries.
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Grace I. Blum, Michael Gutierrez and Charles Peck
This chapter provides a conceptual framework for inclusive education for learners with low-incidence disabilities grounded in the argument that increased access and participation…
Abstract
This chapter provides a conceptual framework for inclusive education for learners with low-incidence disabilities grounded in the argument that increased access and participation in socially valued roles, activities, and settings are both the most fundamental goals of the inclusive education process and also the primary means in which these goals are achieved. By challenging traditional views of learning development as merely the acquisition of skills, the proposed framework largely considers the social contexts in which the development of new skills takes place. Through the presentation of three case illustrations, the authors describe ways in which the framework may be relevant to designing and evaluating programs of inclusive education that are responsive to the needs of diverse communities, including those in a variety of international contexts.
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The purpose of the paper is to examine the conceptions of Chineseness and the perceptions of China in Ontario's High School History Curriculum from 1945 to the end of the 1980s…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to examine the conceptions of Chineseness and the perceptions of China in Ontario's High School History Curriculum from 1945 to the end of the 1980s.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines the syllabus and textbooks in the period that were taught in schools in Ontario. Curriculum guidelines and documents published by the Ontario Department (later Ministry) of Education were studied, as well as the Circular 14, which lists the approved textbooks from which the textbooks where chosen for this paper. The impact-response and tradition-modernity approaches to the study and writing of Chinese enabled the unpacking of the western-centric presuppositions in the textbooks.
Findings
From the onset, the Chinese history that was taught and presented was a western-centric one. The paper demonstrates that post Second World War Chinese history that was taught via the Ontario High School History Curriculum and textbooks reflected a view of Chineseness that regards the Chinese and the Chinese civilization was regarded as essentialized, backward and static vis-à-vis the modern West. Implicit in such a conception of Chineseness is that of western superiority over the Chinese civilization.
Originality/value
There have been few studies on how the history of Asia is represented in Canadian school history. Knowing how Chinese history is represented in Ontario High Schools is an interesting case study of how white settler societies viewed and understood China. This study also sheds light on the broader issue of the problematic at play when Asian history is taught and represented in other white settler societies like Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
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We describe three homeless older people who presented to an old age psychiatry service. Homeless older adults are likely to have untreated mental and physical health problems and…
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We describe three homeless older people who presented to an old age psychiatry service. Homeless older adults are likely to have untreated mental and physical health problems and to be invisible to services. To detect and treat them, services need to be flexible.
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Assigning or claiming identities can be a dangerous business. Labels carry conflicting meanings and, even more importantly, what is a laudatory term to some will be grounds for…
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Assigning or claiming identities can be a dangerous business. Labels carry conflicting meanings and, even more importantly, what is a laudatory term to some will be grounds for condemnation by others. My immediate response to the invitation to write this piece about becoming a symbolic interactionist, aside from the pleasure of being asked, was that I was not sure that I could claim, or even that I would want to claim, this label. I have a visceral dislike of theoretical-cum-methodological camps, not least because over the years I have been accused of belonging to a variety of these, from positivism to post-modernism. Reflecting a little more on the invitation, however, I realized that I could not reasonably deny that in the past, particularly in the 1970s, I regarded myself and was seen by others as an interactionist. Moreover, while my ideas about sociological work are now somewhat different from what they were then, and the direction of travel might be viewed as ‘un-interactionist’, in fact much of my work is still focused on issues coming out of the interactionist tradition: notably, Blumer's views about methodology, Becker's arguments about ‘Whose side are we on?’, and the notion of analytic induction.
This chapter comments on organizational learning research produced by scholars who studied or taught at Stanford University during the last third of the 20th century. Challenging…
Abstract
This chapter comments on organizational learning research produced by scholars who studied or taught at Stanford University during the last third of the 20th century. Challenging classical learning models, Stanford scholars have demonstrated how cognitive and social processes attenuate connections between environmental action and the lessons learned from it. They have demonstrated how goals change over time as a partial function of prior performance and the importance of temporal processes in learning rates. They have shown how rules and routines encode only imperfectly lessons learned from organizational action. Their research has deepened and enriched our understanding of organizational learning.