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In the Norwegian offshore oil industry, helicopters have been used as a major mode of transporting personnel to and from offshore installations for decades. Helicopter transportation represents one of the major risks for offshore employees. The purpose of this paper is to study the safety of helicopter transportation in terms of the expected number of fatalities on an operational planning level.

Based on an analysis of helicopter accidents, this paper proposes a mathematical model that can aid in the planning of routes for the fleet in order to minimize the expected number of fatalities.

A theorem proven in this paper tells that hub-and-spoke configuration is the best way of routing helicopters in terms of minimizing expected number of fatalities. Computational results indicate that the expected number of fatalities may be reduced at the expense of longer travel time by implementing the proposed method into planning of routes for helicopter fleet.

The main limitation is the present inability to solve large problem instances.

The suggested tool is able to provide decision makers with a set of solutions from which they can choose the one with the best trade-off between travel time and transportation safety.

The mathematical model and theoretical results for route planning with a safety-based objective are original.

The purpose of this study is to use the Taguchi Method for parametric design in the early stages of product development. electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) issues can be considered in the early stages of product design to reduce counter-measure components, product cost and labor consumption increases due to a number of design changes in the R&D cycle and to accelerate the R&D process.

The three EMC characteristics, including radiated emission, conducted emission and fast transient impulse immunity of power, are considered response values; control factors are determined with respect to the relevant parameters for printed circuit board and mechanical design of the product and peripheral devices used in conjunction with the product are considered as noise factors. The optimal parameter set is determined by using the principal component gray relational analysis in conjunction with both response surface methodology and artificial neural network.

Market specifications and cost of components are considered to propose an optimal parameter design set with the number of grounded screw holes being 14, the size of the shell heat dissipation holes being 3 mm and the arrangement angle of shell heat dissipation holes being 45 degrees, to dispose of 390 O filters on the noise source.

The optimal parameter set can improve EMC effectively to accommodate the design specifications required by customers and pass test regulations.

Cultural differences between employees of different nationalities are hindering the development of some transnational joint ventures. Describing and modelling the positive (or negative) factors that cause joint venture employees to accept (or reject) joint management business practices is of great value to all corporations operating abroad with locally sourced employees.

This study uses a Sino-Japan construction joint venture project as a representative case study. First, structural equation modelling is used to identify the factors influencing Chinese employees' acceptance of joint venture management practices. Then, a system dynamics model is adopted to simulate the time-dependent effects of the incentives.

The study results (1) indicate which incentives strongly affect employee acceptance of joint venture management practices; (2) identify inefficient management practices in cross-cultural joint ventures; and (3) provide evidence that the employees' perceptions of clear purpose, good working relationships and helpful mechanisms positively and directly also support their acceptance of joint management practices.

–A dynamic simulation method is used to analyse the influence of various incentive factors on employee acceptance of joint management. This provides unprecedented information regarding how these factors interact with each other, hence how their effectiveness varies (both positively and negatively) over time. Further findings also provide new ideas for joint venture managers to adopt more effective management methods.