Declan M. Barry and Michael W. Hudson
Downtime data have been acquired from a 1980 MW capacity coal‐fired power station. These data refer to a pulverised fuel system which comprises ten mills, each of which, for the…
Abstract
Downtime data have been acquired from a 1980 MW capacity coal‐fired power station. These data refer to a pulverised fuel system which comprises ten mills, each of which, for the purpose of reliability analysis, has six sets of components liable to failure. The majority voting of the mills was a seven‐out‐of‐ten system. Individual unit failure patterns are determined using a family of exponential models and are used to provide total group reliability patterns, and a computerised alogorithm for analysis of the voting system is developed. A methodology for scheduling majority vote equipment working with non‐symmetrical overhaul downtimes is presented.
Francesco Bimbo, Alessandro Bonanno and Rosaria Viscecchia
Geographical indication (GI) labels aim to improving farmers' and processors' income. This article studies how characteristics related to GI groups and their reputation (e.g. the…
Abstract
Purpose
Geographical indication (GI) labels aim to improving farmers' and processors' income. This article studies how characteristics related to GI groups and their reputation (e.g. the producer group size, longevity and production decisions) are related to prices at the origin, final (consumption) prices and marketing margins.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use 8 years of annual data for the Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) GI market encompassing 46 GI EVOOs. Estimated parameters characterizing the relationship between the GI's group features and prices (at origin and at consumption) are obtained via Three-Stage Least Squares (3SLS).
Findings
Results show that the number of GI operators is related to consumption prices, while is weakly related to prices at the origin. GIs' age is not associated with higher consumption prices, while origin prices are lower for older GIs compared to younger ones. Higher farmers' olive/oil conversion rate is associated with lower origin and consumption prices, whereas the extent of vertical integration is related to higher prices at the origin and a higher share of the marketing margins going to producers.
Originality/value
To the best of their knowledge, the authors offer the first empirical evidence on how structural characteristics and production decisions of a GI group relate to prices and marketing margins.
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Chester Street, Aston, Birmingham, 6. The ‘Donald’ Patent Barrel Lifter Truck and Stand, the three‐in‐one appliance. Barrels up to 7 cwts. lifted and transported by one man…
Abstract
Chester Street, Aston, Birmingham, 6. The ‘Donald’ Patent Barrel Lifter Truck and Stand, the three‐in‐one appliance. Barrels up to 7 cwts. lifted and transported by one man. ‘Donald’ Patent Barrel Lifter Stands for Oil Stores.
Raquel Meyer Alexander, Andrew Gross, G. Ryan Huston and Vernon J. Richardson
We investigate the interaction of debt covenants and tax accounting on the adoption of Financial Interpretation No. 48 (FIN 48). We examine how firms respond to the potential…
Abstract
We investigate the interaction of debt covenants and tax accounting on the adoption of Financial Interpretation No. 48 (FIN 48). We examine how firms respond to the potential tightening of covenant slack upon FIN 48 adoption and whether these actions are penalized by creditors and anticipated by equity markets. We find that upon FIN 48 adoption, the majority of sample corporate borrowers increase their tax reserves and reduce equity. Firms close to debt covenant violation were even more likely to increase tax reserves upon FIN 48 adoption; however, the size of the adjustment was relatively smaller, suggesting that the FIN 48 standards limited, but did not eliminate, firms use of discretion in reporting uncertain tax positions to avoid costly covenant violations. For firms near net worth debt covenant violation, the act of decreasing equity upon FIN 48 adoption imposes real economic costs, as the average cost of debt increased by 43 basis points. Finally, we extend prior research on the market response to FIN 48 by showing how the market response to FIN 48 adoption is a function of debt covenant slack and tax aggressiveness. Specifically, the cumulative abnormal return at the FIN 48 exposure draft release date is negative only for tax aggressive firms that are close to debt covenant violation.
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S.J. Mabbutt, G.P. Bierwagen and D.J. Mills
This work investigates the single substrate (SS) technique for obtaining potential and current noise data for electrochemical noise measurement (ENM) analysis. The technique uses…
Abstract
This work investigates the single substrate (SS) technique for obtaining potential and current noise data for electrochemical noise measurement (ENM) analysis. The technique uses a single substrate element, and has shown promise as a useful application for use in the field. The traditional two working electrode approach of obtaining data is hindered by the fact that two electrically isolated substrate elements are required to act as working electrodes. The SS technique addresses this problem, theoretically enabling ENM to be made on any structure using just one electrical connection to the metallic substrate. Results are presented for anti‐corrosive organic coating systems intended for marine applications that have very high resistance values (> 1 × 109ohm‐cm2). In addition data obtained from previous work that looked at a single coat anti‐corrosive primer after a short period of time in immersion and giving Rn values of around 1 × 108ohm‐cm2 are presented. Good agreement is seen between values of Rn obtained from the traditional two working electrode method and those obtained from the single substrate technique over both ranges of resistance.
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It is widely believed that the construction industry is more volatile than other sectors of the economy. Accurate predictions of the level of aggregate demand for construction are…
Abstract
It is widely believed that the construction industry is more volatile than other sectors of the economy. Accurate predictions of the level of aggregate demand for construction are of vital importance to all sectors of this industry (e.g. developers, builders and consultants). Empirical studies have shown that accuracy performance varies according to the type of forecasting technique and the variable to be forecast. Hence, there is a need to gain useful insights into how different techniques perform, in terms of accuracy, in the prediction of demand for construction. In Singapore, the residential sector has often been regarded as one of the most important owing to its large percentage share in the total value of construction contracts awarded per year. In view of this, there is an increasing need to objectively identify a forecasting technique which can produce accurate demand forecasts for this vital sector of the economy. The three techniques examined in the present study are the univariate Box‐Jenkins approach, the multiple loglinear regression and artificial neural networks. A comparison of the accuracy of the demand models developed shows that the artificial neural network model performs best overall. The univariate Box‐Jenkins model is the next best, while the multiple loglinear regression model is the least accurate. Relative measures of forecasting accuracy dealing with percentage errors are used to compare the forecasting accuracy of the three different techniques.
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Feng-Xia He, Li Dai, Qisen Chen, Yu Liu and Zhong Luo
Since robot’s structural stiffness is usually less than 1 N/µm, mode coupling chatter occurs frequently during robotic milling process, and chatter frequency is close to the…
Abstract
Purpose
Since robot’s structural stiffness is usually less than 1 N/µm, mode coupling chatter occurs frequently during robotic milling process, and chatter frequency is close to the natural frequency of the robot itself. Chatter not only affects the surface quality but also damages the robot and reduces the positioning accuracy. Therefore, it is necessary to predict chatter in robotic machining process.
Design/methodology/approach
A three-dimensional dynamic model for robot’s spatial milling plane is established, and a corresponding stability criterion is obtained. First, the cutting force in milling plane is transformed into the coordinate system of the robot principal stiffness direction based on homogeneous transformation matrix. Then the three-dimensional stability criterion under milling process can be obtained by using system stability analysis. Furthermore, the circle diagram of mode coupling chatter stability is drawn. Each feeding direction’s stability under the two processing forms, referred as spindle vertical milling and spindle horizontal milling, is analyzed.
Findings
The experimental results verify that the three-dimensional stability criterion can avoid chatter by selecting machining feed direction in stable area.
Originality/value
This paper established a three-dimensional dynamic model in robot’s spatial milling plane and proposed a three-dimensional stability criterion according to the Routh criterion. The work is also expected to be an efficient tool in the development of robotic milling technology.
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Lourdes Munduate, Juan Ganaza, José M. Peiró and Martin Euwema
Most studies of conflict handling styles in organizations analyze these styles separately. These studies assume that individuals are oriented towards the use of one of the styles…
Abstract
Most studies of conflict handling styles in organizations analyze these styles separately. These studies assume that individuals are oriented towards the use of one of the styles of conflict management. As a result, different styles are compared one by one as if they were independent. In contrast, from a more all‐embracing perspective people are seen as adopting configurations of styles. The interest in this alternative perspective lies in exploring the relations between these styles, how they combine and form patterns of conflict styles. This article presents an exploratory study that seeks to identify empirically the specific combinations of conflict handling styles that result in differentiated patterns within groups of managers. By using hierarchical and non‐hierarchical cluster analyses of a sample of managers, different patterns of conflict management were identified. The effectiveness of each of the resulting patterns was analyzed in terms of its influence on the parties' joint substantive outcomes and their mutual relationship. Results show that patterns using multiple conflict handling styles were more effective than patterns based on a single style.