Idea Of Profit Research Articles

Viscos-elastic-plastic solution for deep buried tunnels considering tunnel face effect and sequential installation of double linings

Tunnels excavated in soft rock under high in situ stress are usually accompanied by large time-dependent deformation, slow convergence, and long periods of increased support load due to the strong rheological properties of the surrounding rock. This paper presents a time-dependent solution for deeply buried supported circular tunnels excavated in viscoelastic-plastic strain-softening rock masses, in which both the whole process of longitudinal excavation and the sequential installation of two elastic linings are considered. In the solution, the surrounding rock obeys a Burger-creep viscous elastic–plastic strain-softening model and two stages, referring to the “tunnel face influence stage” and the “creep stage”, are divided to derive the explicit expressions of the time-dependent tunnel convergences and support loads, in which the former stage accounts for the effect of stress release based on the elastic–plastic analysis, and the latter concentrates on the long-term response induced by the viscous behavior of the ground. To account for the different rock qualities, tunnel face advance rates, and lining tunnel support locations, the elastic–plastic strain-softening solution in the former stage is divided into three cases and the viscos-elastic–plastic solution in the creep stage includes two sub-solutions depending on the evolutions of stress paths being considered or not. For validation purposes, the provided analytical solutions are compared with the numerical results by finite-difference simulations and previous solutions. Following that, parametric studies are conducted to compare the stresses, deformations, and support loads under different stages and solutions. Finally, to further verify the applicability of the solutions in practical tunnels, the convergences, support loads and lining stresses of a typical tunnel cross-section in the Saint Martin La Porte access adit are successfully predicted. Overall, the proposed solutions in this study provide a profitable idea for deriving various viscoelastic-plastic or elasto-viscoplastic explicit solutions that can simultaneously account for both the rock rheology and tunnel face effect.

Carbon dioxide emission, mitigation and storage technologies pathways

The Paris Agreement was aimed at reducing the global temperature to no more than 2ºC while continuing efforts to keep it to no more than 1.5 ºC to combat climate change and its detrimental effects. Scientists are more confident than ever that the damage already being caused by climate impacts will get worse as global warming progresses, with increasing adverse effects on human health, ecosystems, and economies. Therefore, to alleviate the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is considered the most urgent and viable approach. This work studied extensively the likely sources of CO2 emissions, via anthropogenic or non-anthropogenic; and the current trends in technology to mitigate CO2. Also, the work provides an extensive discussion on CO2 storage and sequestration and briefly discusses the possible utilisation of CO2. By combining the benefit of direct capturing of CO2 and utilization, with long-term CO2 storage, CCUS is thus an appealing and profitable idea for meeting CO2 reduction targets.

Work curiosity and R&D professionals’ creative performance: Scientists vs. engineers

Curiosity embodies individual motivation to explore the unknown to either seek the pleasant experience of cognitive stimulation or eliminating the unpleasant feelings of ignorance. Drawing upon the regulatory focus theory, this paper investigates how work curiosity affects professional employees' creativity for improvement and creativity for innovation through the intervening role of creative process engagement. We used structural equation modeling to test our hypothesized framework with a sample of 372 R&D personnel, in-house scientists, and middle managers of R&D divisions, together with archival patent data from knowledge-intensive industries. The findings reveal that work curiosity influences R&D professionals' creativity by regulating their creative process engagement. More interestingly, the results suggest that research type (engineering/technology development vs. scientific discoveries) moderates the mediating effects of creative process engagement in the curiosity-creativity nexus. We leverage insights from psychology research to explore the motivational mechanisms that awaken professional employees' willingness to engage in cognitive activities for creative ideation, which can yield innovative solutions and profitable ideas.

Массовизация и профессионализация университетов в середине XX века: социально-культурные последствия

The article analyzes the socio-cultural consequences of massovization and professionalization universities processes launched in the middle of the 20th century under the influence of the idea of profitability of education. It is giving some rationales for understanding why these processes disadvantages have become the decline in the value and prestige of intellectual labour (including a scientific one), which was shifted to the shoulders of ordinary people, whereas previously, intellectual labour and creativity were mainly the duties of wealthy people and, in general, social elites. It is concluded that as a result of the massification and professionalization of universities, a trend has been formed for the commercialization of higher education, which destroys the traditional models of university education.

Optimum Fleet Selection Using Machine Learning Algorithms—Case Study: Zenouz Kaolin Mine

This paper presents the machine learning (ML) method, a novel approach that could be a profitable idea to optimize fleet management and achieve a sufficient output to reduce operational costs, by diminishing trucks’ queuing time and excavators’ idle time, based on the best selection of the fleet. The performance of this method was studied at the Zenouz kaolin mine to optimize the type of loader and the number of trucks used to supply the processing plant’s ore demands. Accordingly, five years’ data, such as dates, weather conditions, number of trucks, routes, loader types, and daily hauled ore, were collected, adapted, and processed to train the following five practical algorithms: linear regression, decision tree, K-nearest neighbour, random forest, and gradient boosting algorithm. By comparing the results of the algorithms, the gradient boosting decision tree algorithm was determined to be the best fit and predicted test data values with 85% accuracy. Subsequently, 11,322 data were imported into the machine as various scenarios and daily hauled minerals as output results were predicted for each working zone individually. Finally, the data which had the minimum variation from the selected required scheduled value, and its related data concerning loader type and the number of demanded trucks, were indicated for each day of the working year.

КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНІ ПІДХОДИ ПРИЙНЯТТЯ РІШЕНЬ ІННОВАЦІЙНИХ ПРОЄКТІВ IT-КОМПАНІЙ

One of the most important factors in the development of the innovation system of IT companies is the assessment of the cost of the innovation project. Evaluating innovative projects is the most important factor that determines the competitiveness of the company on the roar. Therefore, it is important to choose the right methodology for assessing the cost of innovative projects for high-tech enterprises. The purpose of this article is to summarize and classify the existing methods for evaluating innovative projects for high-tech enterprises, which satisfies their peculiarities, and to determine the most optimal of the methods considered. As the main methods of evaluating innovation, the article proposes such approaches as a funnel of ideas, an open innovation method, an innovation matrix, a Delphi method, statistical and analytical methods. To take full advantage of the innovation effect, each organization must identify and implement effective innovation management. The development of a successful innovation process should take advantage of something new (technological innovation, a new management or organizational process, etc.). The article also considers the methods of presentation for processing the results of analysis and decision-making on innovative IT projects. Questions to analyze and assess the chances of success of ideas up to innovative projects. Presentation methods for solution-oriented analysis results processing. Implementation of methods in auxiliary tools. After analyzing the available methods for evaluating innovative projects, it can be noted that it is the method of funneling ideas that is the most optimal. After all, it contains a high-quality process of developing an idea and allows you to consider the largest number of ideas that subsequently go through a thorough evaluation process and only the best and most profitable ideas will be accepted for implementation. The article indicated approaches that allow to carry out a comprehensive assessment and ranking of innovative IT projects based on an analysis of the impact of their expected results on the scope of the enterprise.

Benefit Corporations in the U.S.

The benefit corporation (BC) is a for-profit corporation required to create a positive impact on workers, communities, society, and environment. The purpose of this paper is to explore how BCs reconcile dominant and alternative frames of profit. This study presented here explores three BCs in the U.S. through a dual-method approach based on observations and interviews. The study reveals how BC members understand and express the idea of profit. Furthermore, it shows the formation of an alternative frame of profit and elucidates three processes whereby the dominant and alternative ideas are reconciled. It highlights both interpretive capabilities and limitations of social actors within the dominant discourse of the contemporary social-economic system.

Widening the idea of profit in the Hobbesian eight bookes of the Peloponnesian Warre?

ABSTRACT Scholars have analysed in-depth the famous three greatest things linking Thomas Hobbes and Thucydides. As is well known, the ideas of fear, honour and profit – that is, timé, déos (and phóbos) and opheléia (or opheléia) – play a fundamental role in showing the latter’s influences on the former. With particular regard to ophelía it has been suggested that it has to be conceived ‘as economic advantage or interest’ [Slomp Gabriella, ‘Hobbes, Thucydides and the Three Greatest Things’, History of Political Thought 11 (1990): 565–86]. Since Thucydides’ lexicon uses several words in addition to opheléia to express the idea of profit, the essay, through a comparative lexical analysis of the original Greek text and its Hobbesian translation, will take these into consideration, in order to find out if they can provide us with elements capable of widening the above definition. All this to better clarify the notion of profit, a notion that is truly crucial in Hobbes’ political thought.

Cooperative utilization of beet pulp and industrial waste fly ash to produce N/P/O self-co-doped hierarchically porous carbons for high-performance supercapacitors

Preparation of three-dimensionally hierarchical porous carbons (HPCs) with biomass wastes for high-performance supercapacitors has being the hotspot subject in the past decade from sustainable and renewable points of view. In this paper, an industrial biomass waste of beet pulp (BP) is used as precursor to purposely prepared N/P/O co-doped HPCs by a simple yet efficient two-step method. Another industrial solid waste of fly ash (FA), containing inorganic oxides (mainly SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, and CaO) with varied sizes, is utilized as the ingredient acting as pore-forming template to regulate the morphology and increase the porosity of the resulting HPCs (derived from BP and FA, which are designated as BFCs). The optimal sample of BFC-2 exhibits an exceptionally high specific capacitance up to 522.1 F g−1 at 1.0 A g−1 in 6 M KOH electrolyte. Furthermore, the symmetric supercapacitor assembled with BFC-2 can deliver large energy densities in both 1 M Na2SO4 (39.3 Wh kg−1) and EMIMBF4 (97.9 Wh kg−1) with satisfactory rate retentions, as well as prominent cycling durabilities. These exciting results show a low-cost, environmentally benign, and waste profitable idea to prepare HPCs for high-performance supercapacitors, which is in good accordance with the principle of " changing waste into wealth " in the green energy resources.

Risk and Trouble: Adam Smith on Profit and the Protagonists of Capitalism

AbstractTo better account for deepening global inequalities, political theory could greatly enhance empirical and normative work by answering a fundamental question: What is profit? When engaging political‐economic questions, however, theorists often begin thinking from the concept of private property. This, I argue, has obscured the central role of profit as an organizing category for capitalist societies since the eighteenth century. Grounded in the dynamic and uncertain processes of production and accumulation, profit displaces the proprietary citizen and subject of natural rights and gives rise to new social protagonists, who lay claim to increasingly asymmetric rewards. In particular, the article calls attention to a dangerous contemporary sensibility, which sees profit as inherently unlimited. As a viable, robust alternative, it presents Adam Smith's idea of profit as a regular, uniform rate that acts as a productive constraint on business activity, shapes character, and safeguards against risk by widely distributing its costs.

Why Do Fund Managers Identify and Share Profitable Ideas?

We study data from an organization in which fund managers privately share and discuss detailed investment recommendations. Buy recommendations generate positive abnormal returns, and sell recommendations result in negative abnormal returns. In the context of these results, we explore an important economic question: Why do skilled investors share profitable ideas with others? Evidence suggests that the managers in our sample share to receive feedback on their ideas and to attract additional arbitrageur capital to the securities they recommend in order to correct mispricings.

Incorporate a Reverse Raffle Into Your Annual Event

Special Events GaloreVolume 15, Issue 12 p. 5-5 Profitable Ideas Incorporate a Reverse Raffle Into Your Annual Event First published: 18 November 2015 https://doi.org/10.1002/speg.30226Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume15, Issue12December 2015Pages 5-5 RelatedInformation

From functional prototypes to industrial products

Nowadays, engineering programs with Problem Based Learning methodologies, develop functional prototypes for demonstration purposes. Most of these ideas, many of them promising, are left behind once the academic term is over. Only a slight percentage of them are followed by an industrialization process, which is not formalized and it is based on third-party experiences. Even if well-known product design methodologies include some methods and activities oriented to evolve the product along its life cycle, they are not suitable for academic projects or they leave out some aspects of the local context. This has been an unexploited area, with high potential as there is no transcendence with academic projects; especially after all the time, effort, and creativity employed into a potentially profitable idea. In this way, the authors propose a methodology intended to allow the transition from academic functional prototype to a product ready to be industrialized according to the capabilities of the local context. Emerging economies, where industrial capabilities may be limited. The development of the methodology has been applied in a case study of an individual electric vehicle. This vehicle was developed with students and researchers within the Design Engineering Research Group (GRID) and it is intended to transport the persons responsible to distribute mail, and packages internally in the University campus. The object of such a case is to study the feasibility to promote this vehicle from functional prototype to a product ready to be industrialized under local industrial constraints.

Manufacturing Mennonites: Work and Religion in Post-War Manitoba by Janis Thiessen (review)

Reviewed by: Manufacturing Mennonites: Work and Religion in Post-War Manitoba by Janis Thiessen Patricia F. Harms Manufacturing Mennonites: Work and Religion in Post-War Manitoba. By Janis Thiessen. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. x + 249 pp. Tables, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. $65.00 cloth, $27.95 paper. In a community that has historically valued a simple lifestyle, identified by its emphasis on rural agriculture communal equality, what is the role of big business and successful entrepreneurs? Within a social context that values working for oneself over working for someone, how does the identity of Mennonite workers and employers influence the work environment? These are the kinds of questions Janis Thiessen’s new book addresses in her exploration of religion’s role within three influential Mennonite-owned family businesses, namely Friesen Printers, located in Altona, Loewen Windows, founded in Steinbach, and Palliser Furniture, built by the DeFehr family in Winnipeg. Focused primarily on the 1960s and 1970s, the author explores relationships between employers and employees ultimately searching for a rationale as to why Mennonite workers by and large rejected unionism during a time it was highly influential through Manitoba. According to Thiessen, the ethno-religious identity of Mennonites played a significant role in both employers’ and employees’ experiences. Tracking working conditions, salary, and employment benefits, she identifies an environment she refers to as “a Mennonite corporate mythology.” Within this milieu, employers actively cultivated “a strong work ethic, an emphasis on quality craftwork, and a combination of religious humility and yieldedness” (64). So although class and hierarchy remained intact within these Mennonite workplaces, the Mennonite ideals held by both employee and employer mitigated such a perception. Furthermore, within a relatively homogenous workplace, the personal management style practiced allowed workers to express concerns and discuss issues with the owner or manager directly, thus making the employees feel integrated and important. This combination of religious obligation for quality work without complaint and a superficial sense of belonging explains, in part, why many workers rejected unionization. However, Thiessen’s analysis also presents a more complex historical perspective. Here, the scholar reminds us that immigrants bring their personal histories and political experiences with them. Mennonites in Manitoba, whose backgrounds in the Soviet Union had been primarily negative, left them suspicious of socialism and unionism, despite the various similarities within their socioeconomic and religious ideologies. Although Mennonite attitudes towards socialism and communism by the early 1970s had shifted significantly, concerns about unionism remained high due to this particular history along with the perception that strikes and work stoppages represented acts of violence (123). By focusing on this immigrant community, which has been ignored by labor historians, Manufacturing Mennonites sheds new light on a hidden aspect of Manitoba’s labor history. As a first monograph on Mennonite labor, Thiessen structures her argument chronologically through six chapters. Drawing on a wide variety of primary sources, including oral interviews of both employees and employers, corporate records, government records, and labor union sources, Thiessen seeks to track the expansion of successful family-owned businesses and their relationship with the workers. Using employee oral testimonies, the study pays particular attention to the transition during the early 1970s. The author’s argument, while convincing, would have been reinforced by a more thorough discussion on the social and business structures of class and hierarchy. While such is an unpopular topic amongst a religious group that values ideals of equality, this reader wishes [End Page 83] Thiessen had highlighted this very critical conclusion. In keeping with structural elements of the Mennonite milieu, another structural component the author leaves dangling is the absence of women, both as subjects within the work and within gender analysis. Thiessen makes several passing references to the fact that women received lower wages than men (103) or that it was an employer’s wife who introduced the idea of profit sharing with the employees (148). While based only on anecdotal evidence, Thiessen’s preliminary conclusions that gender played a critical role within broader structural elements beg further evaluation, which would have also strengthened her central argument. Thiessen’s work raises several critical aspects of Mennonite communal identity that warrant further investigation. This book addresses class, a fact often dismissed...

English

The issue of profits in company management is as old as the joint stock company but remains ever topical and somewhat controversial. Accountants have one measure for profit and economists another measure, whilst some others want to do away with the idea of profits entirely to ensure social responsibility by companies. The theory of sustainability calls into question the existing theory of profits, apparently based on subsidization and negative externalities, as a result of its failure to factor into company accounts their true environmental costs. Not only does the principle of sustainability appear to validate stakeholders’ rights in corporate profits but it also calls into question the current theories of profit creation and distributional equity based on shareholder theory, as well as existing company laws. This paper examines the relevant issues and argues that new legal rules on corporate accounting and profits reflecting generational equity, rather than reliance on voluntary compliance, are imperative for good corporate governance and sustainable development. Key words: Corporate profits law, CSR/corporate sustainability, sustainability accounting, generational equity, IFRS environmental standards, intra/inter -generational shareholders equity.

NEW APPROACHES IN THE DESIGN OF PLASTIC PRODUCTS FOR EASY RECYCLING

The researches were initiated in the context emphasized by the competition having the idea of profit at its base, and sustainable development, which imposes limitations through different regulations and standards which would involve supplementary costs. The research highlights the main trends in plastic product design in conditions of sustainable development of society. Plastics have an important role in the configuration of the new products just in the phase of conception. Having in mind the main advantages of the utilization of plastics, the expectation is to see an increase of the weighting of these ones in the products development. The paper underlies the fact that the new approaches of the life cycle of a product, and especially the conception phase are essential for the entire life cycle, taking into account the fact that the polluting agent is paying and the producer must take into account its extended responsibility, beyond the product sale. This paper highlights the relevance of the retrieval of the product as a very important phase in sustainable development. It is stressed that, even since the conception phase of the product, there must be taken into account the recycling of each life phase of the product. This is applicable especially in the industry of automotive, which is under the pressure of the sustainability. In this context, the role of plastics will increase simultaneously with the solving of the recycling problems. The advantages of using plastic materials (optimization the geometry of the product, the possibility to enclose into narrow spaces, the weight decrease, the fuel consumption diminish) are reflected gradually, together with the increase of the recycling rate.

Nikolas Rose

Nikolas Rose

How Long Should An Individual At Full Retirement Age Delay Receiving Social Security Benefits?

n important topic for many individuals approaching 66 in 2011 is whether to start social security benefits at full retirement age (FRA) or to delay the benefits in order to gain greater payouts in the future. In 2009, the bonus for delaying the start of benefits rose to about 8% per year. By delaying benefits for four years (to age 70), it is possible to increase benefits by 38 to 55 percent per month for the remainder of the retirees life. In addition to the higher monthly benefits from delaying start of benefits, there are also substantial benefits for high income retirees in relocating to lower tax states. Also, given that the remaining age to death for most retirees at FRA is clearly finite, one would expect to see some value in discounting future earnings. Our paper evaluates accumulated benefits over a 25 year time horizon to assess retirement decisions post FRA. We consider three examples of accumulated benefits: (1) constant dollar accumulated benefits without discount or taxes; (2) alternative rates of discount of the future stream of earnings without income taxes; and (3) discounted after tax benefits. Each scenario is evaluated to assess whether delaying social security benefits past FRA is a profitable idea. Based upon our analysis, any discount rate in excess of 5% of the available after-tax returns provides no breakeven age within expected life ages. That is, at high discount rates, it is always better to start benefits at FRA or with only short delay once FRA is reached, if the individual wishes to maximize accumulated benefits over the expected life. At discount rates of less than 3%, the accumulated benefits may be increased within the expected life span by delaying the start of benefits. If no discount rate is applied, accumulated benefits are maximized by delayed start since all breakeven ages occur within life expectancy. In addition, we find that the negative impact of taxes on accumulated benefits can be as large as a discount rate of 3% on accumulated benefits. For high income retirees, a strategy of (1) relocating to lower tax states and (2) delaying the start of benefits can provide substantial increases to accumulated benefits. Finally, we note that the retirement decision is not entirely financial, but that many factors including family, spouse, work climate, health, expected life span, and fear of running out of money lead individuals into making decisions that may not optimize the present value of future benefits.

Profitable Ideas: The Ideology of the Individual in Capitalist Development

Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Decline of Feudal Ideas 2. The Individualism of Hobbes and Locke 3. Individualism, Religion and Science 4. The Th eory of Population Pressure 5. Doctrines of Social Evolution 6. Individualism and the Question of Democracy 7. The Ideas of F.A. Hayek 8. Neoliberalism and Capital Accumulation 9. Economic Downturn and Decline of Free Market Doctrine Conclusion Bibliography Index

The Moisture Migration Behavior of Plasticized Starch Biopolymer

Using plasticized starch pellets as a precursor for making thermoformed products is a commercially viable and profitable idea. However, drying of plasticized starch is quite complex in nature, partly due to the synergistic interactions between starch and plasticizers in the presence of water. The migration of water from starch pellets plasticized by two components, glycerol and xylitol, at three different temperatures was investigated in the present work. Evidence for synergistic interaction between plasticizers and water within starch is shown by the reduced effective moisture diffusivities and moisture migration fluxes at different overall plasticizer concentrations. In addition, the effective moisture diffusivities showed stronger dependence on moisture concentration and the plasticizer molecular weight even though the moisture flux was comparable. The drying process was characterized by two effective diffusion coefficients (D 1, D 2) and, interestingly, the coefficients were an order of significance apart. The Peleg model was investigated for predicting the drying behavior and it is shown that the Peleg constants k 1 and k 2 increase with temperature. k 2, Which is related to material structure and morphology, showed comparable modification by addition of plasticizers, indicating that plasticizers were able to modify the fundamental structure, and xylitol showed greater average k 2 values than glycerol. Further, because k 1 is related with moisture diffusivity, the effect of temperature on diffusivity was interpreted using the Arrhenius relationship. The activation energy values confirm that plasticizers can lock in water within the new structure. Overall, the larger structure of xylitol showed better stability in controlling moisture diffusivities and migration fluxes. These findings can provide better insights in designing and controlling the vapor barrier properties of starch-based packaging materials.