Feasibility study applied to mapping tidal effects in the Pannonian basin--An effort to check location dependencies atμGal level

This paper summarizes the main instrumental and methodological points of the tidal research which was performed in the framework of the National Scientific Research Fund Project K101603. Since the project is still running the tidal analysis results published here are only preliminary. Unmodelled tidal effects have been highlighted in some recent absolute gravity measurements carried out in the Pannonian basin resulting in a periodic modulation exceeding the typical standard deviations （±1microGal） of the drop sets. Since the most dominant source of the daily gravity variation is the bulk tidal effect, the goal of the project is to check its location dependency at BGal level. Unfortunately Hungary has had no dedicated instrumentation, so an effort was made to make the available LaCoste- Romberg spring G meters capable for continuous recording. As a reference instrument the GWR SG025 operated in the Conrad Observatory, Austria was also used and in the mean time of the project, a Scintrex CG-5 became also available, Eventually 6 instruments at 5 different locations were operated for 3 9 months mainly in co-located configuration. Although many experiments （moving mass calibrations） were done to determine the scale factors and scale functions of the instruments, the direct comparison of the tidal parameters obtained from the observations is still questionable. Therefore the ratio of the delta factors of O1 and M2 tidal constituents was investigated supposing that M2 is much more influenced by the ocean loading effect than O1. The slight detected increase of δ（O1 ）/δ（M2） （≈0.2%） toward east does not contradict to theory. This result has to be validated in the near future by analyzing available ocean loading models.

The challenge of wide application of information and communication technologies to traditional location theory

The wide application of information and communication technologies （ICTs） has been argued to be critical to spatial transformation of firms. Recent advances in the studies along this line have challenged traditional location theory. The existing literature, however, focuses mainly on the impacts of ICTs on Iocational conditions and industrial spatial distribution. The dynamics behind such changes have not yet been given sufficient attention by geographers. Given this background, this paper investigates the impact of new ICTs on traditional location theory and the dynamics of industrial re-location that are enabled by new ICTs, based on data collected from an investigation of 178 firms. The paper argues that the application of new ICTs has been a key location factor in the information age, and that the time-cost is becoming critical to the spatial organization of firms, particularly as a result of a shorter product life and mass customization, among other dynamics.