Monthly Budget Research Articles

The Human Side: Tom Confronts Lab Rage

THE HUMAN SIDE The following hypothetical human resources problem has, like so many of its ilk, no correct answer. In order to help your colleagues deal with such a situation, please tell us how you would handle it. We'll print as many as space permits. The Editor. XYZ's research VP, Evers, was pondering the monthly budget when his secretary interrupted to tell him that the security supervisor wished to see him in the laboratory copy room. says you won't believe what he has to show you unless you see it! Grumbling at the interruption, Tom headed for the copy room where he found Jacobs, the security supervisor and Gettings, human resources director, waiting. Look at this copy Joe exclaimed, Looks like it has been run over by a truck! The top of the copy machine had obviously been pounded by a heavy object and was badly dented; the sides looked as if they had been kicked repeatedly. Joe went on, Apparently the machine jammed and whoever was operating it couldn't get it unjammed so he took it out on the machine! We've pulled out the jammed stuff and it looks like somebody was copying an article on integrated circuits when the machine jammed. People who enter the building at night sign in and none of last night's sign-ins say they used the copier. Of course, lab people who just stay late don't sign anything and we don't know who else was in the building after regular hours, Jacobs continued. What do you want me to do-we can't let this disrespect for property go without doing something about it! Pete Gettings spoke up. There is a lot of discussion today about 'road rage.' But at the last personnel conference attended there was a session on 'desk rage'-some called it 'office rage' or 'work rage.' It's the increasing tendency of people to explode over relatively minor irritants-like a co-worker's telephone voice, a stuck computer key, a jammed copier, or a supervisor's laugh. We heard a speaker on rising employee stress levels say that when people really get stressed out, their biology gets out of whack-the more stressed they get, the more their emotions are likely to flow in unexpected ways. Some cry; others get violently angry and react physically. There's also another factor involved here: today's society is increasingly accepting of the legitimacy of expressing anger-of letting people `have it.' recently read a Justice Department report that estimates that more than a million employees are subjected to various levels of violence at work each year. A significant number of these involve aggravated assault. That's what we've got here-except in this case the assault was on a machine and not on a person. Maybe we're lucky! Pete continued, If we've got a lab worker so uptight that he tries to demolish a machine, he has--or will-display that anger in other situations. I'll ask around the lab to see if can find anyone who has 'blown his top' on other occasions. Looking for the Angry Worker Several days went by and Pete returned to report, Case solved-I asked around and found out that a new hire in Electronics has become the talk of the department because of his violent temper and sudden tirades. Great worker, brilliant intellect but very apt to blow up for almost no reason at all. I'm told he pounds on his keyboard when the computer won't respond, and during a project review he threatened to punch a fellow employee who criticized some of his ideas. I approached this fellow-Phil is his name-and asked him if he had worked late on the night the copier was damaged. He immediately got angry and swore at me. Said he had to work late most nights because his 'stupid' supervisor didn't assign him enough help to get his project done on schedule. thought had him in a vulnerable situation so asked him about the copier damage-got another tirade about poor maintenance of our office equipment and that it added more grief to his busy schedule. …

Housing Finance

Housing finance is an important topic for all individuals, families, and households as they move through life. For most, the cost of housing is one of the largest expenditures in the monthly budget. This paper presents a very brief view of housing finance with an emphasis on home buying. To keep this presentation to a reasonable length, only basic information is included. Seven elementary components of home buying are explained: pre-qualification for homeowner ship; the monthly housing payment; fixed and adjustable rate mortgages; insurance; equity; income tax deductions; and types of ownership. A brief explanation of the home-buying process is included. The paper concludes with learning activities, 75 glossary terms for review, and a list of several Web sites, videos, and books and pamphlets on housing finance.

Store loyalty: its impact on retail revenue. An empirical study of purchasing behaviour in the UK

In this paper, we present some significant empirical findings about store loyalty and consumer spending in the United Kingdom across five retail sectors. Our findings are presented at two levels: Firstly, we compared loyalty levels across retail sectors in the UK and identified that home improvement stores generate the lowest levels of consumer loyalty. Secondly, by disaggregating the data by loyalty types, we found that, while loyal shoppers tend to have smaller monthly budgets than switchers, they spend double the amount in their “first choice” store. All our results highlight the importance of developing a corporate approach to managing customer loyalty in retailing.

The Public Treasury of the Muslims: Monthly Budgets of the Mahdist State in the Sudan, 1897

In 1885 Khartoum fell into the hands of the Mahdist movement which put an end to 60 years of Egyptian rule in the Sudan. An independent state was founded along Islamic principles, which also affected fiscal institutions like the Public Treasury. Through the translation and edition of the monthly budgets of nine and a half months in 1897, one can study closely the various items of revenue and expenditure, the currencies in circulation, the system of accountancy, and the organisation of the Treasury. In addition to an analysis of the revenues, the introduction focuses on the organisation of the Treasury and on the system of accountancy and concludes that the Mahdists relied heavily on early Islamic as well as on Ottoman models, which they modified to suit local conditions.

Ahmad Ibrahim Abu Shouk and Anders Bjørkelo trans. and ed., The Public Treasury of the Muslims: Monthly Budgets of the Mahdist State in the Sudan, 1897, The Ottoman Empire and Its Heritage: Politics, Society and Economy (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996). Pp. 414.

Ahmad Ibrahim Abu Shouk and Anders Bjørkelo trans. and ed., The Public Treasury of the Muslims: Monthly Budgets of the Mahdist State in the Sudan, 1897, The Ottoman Empire and Its Heritage: Politics, Society and Economy (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996). Pp. 414.

The heat budget at ocean weather stationBravo

Abstract The monthly surface heat budget and wind stress are calculated from three‐hourly meteorological data obtained at OWS B from 1946 to 1974 using formulae based on the best available measurements, and are then compared with earlier estimates. The surface heating is compared with the monthly heat storage in the water column calculated from hydrographic casts from 1964 to 1973. In spite of the scatter in the individual monthly heat storage values, the mean seasonal cycle agrees well with that of the surface flux. The residual, attributed to advection, is highly variable and does not have a strong seasonal cycle at this location. The long‐term heat loss from the ocean to the atmosphere at OWS B is found to be 28 W m−2, much smaller than the 98 W m−2 loss computed from the same data using Bunker's widely accepted formulae. The difference is accounted for by Bunker's 28% underestimate of the incoming short‐wave radiation and his 74 and 43% overestimates of the outgoing sensible and latent heat fluxes, re...

Nourrir le peuple : politique alimentaire et politique démographique en Chine

This paper focuses on the interaction between alimentary and demographic policies in China during the past 10 years, and on the long-term consequences of the new policy of economic readjustment. The repartition of food supply in China depends on 2 principles, egalitarianism and autonomy of production. In rural areas this policy has always resulted in children being used for work around the house and in the fields by the age of 10, with little time for education; children are necessary for the sustainance of the family since the amount of food obtained from the government is in proportion to family size and labour force; this obviously leads to demographic increase. Urban population is in a different situation; expenses for food cover 68.6% of the monthly budget of a family; pressure for the education of children is very strong, with additional expenses, and the whole urban system of life is conducive to antinatalist attitudes. In rural areas the search for autonomy of production has accentuated regional disparities of economics; in 1978 agricultural production represented only 1/4 of the gross national product but involved 84% of the active population; only half of the cultivated land was irrigated and a family needed every member, including children, to work. Moreover, children, especially males, were needed to provide for their parents in old age. This system often forced peasants to report to the local authorities inferior sizes of cultivated land to limit their obligatory delivery of food supply. In 1980 nutrition in China was still based mainly on grains and beans, and a large majority of school-age children are anemic. In 1957 president Mao first took a pro-fertility control position, but nothing was done seriously till after the Cultural Revolution, i.e. until around the 1970s. In 1978 and 1979 there were 2 national congresses on population theory; in 1978 the government decided to extend the promotion of family planning to the whole nation through administrative pressure and economic sanctions; food is provided for a first child, less for a second, and none for a third. The Chinese press is full of reports on the wonderful successes of this policy; today China's population has food enough to survive, but barely. One of China's objectives for the year 2000 is to increase the quantity of grain available to every citizen from 400 to 500 kg. The policy "one couple one child" encounters serious opposition in the countryside, and to reach zero population growth in the year 2000 the Communist Party will have to exercise enormous pressure on the rural population.

Phytoplankton and pelagic primary productivity in Øvre Heimdalsvatn

A phytoplankton investigation was carried out in the subalpine, low‐productive Norwegian lake Øvre Heimdalsvatn in 1969–70 and 1972. This paper describes the temporal and spatial distribution of the standing stock of phytoplankton, and phytoplankton primary productivity. The annual average primary productivity in 1972 was 4.0–4.9 mg C m−3 d−1; the annual average standing stock varied from 120 mg m−3 (freshweight) in 1969–70, to 250 mg m−3 in 1972. Phytoplankton species composition and size distribution is discussed. Throughout the year the phytoplankton is dominated by small (ultraplankton) species; μ‐algae (< 5 μm) showed cell concentrations up to 15 mill. cells 1−1. The dominating group was chrysophytes; cryptophytes, dinoflagellates or green algae were at times abundant. A phytoplankton monthly budget and a diagram showing annual average carbon flow through the standing stock of phytoplankton are presented; the phytoplankton dynamics in Øvre Heimdalsvatn is compared to that of other low‐productive lakes.

The monthly heat budget isolines on the Mediterranean Sea

The results of the heat budget at the Surface of the Mediterranean Sea are shown as monthly isolines on the Mediterranean Chart. A brief discussion about the interpretation of these isolines is reported.

The annual cycle of the energetics of the atmosphere on a planetary scale

A fairly complete description of the annual cycle of the energetics of the atmosphere is given for the entire northern hemisphere. The basis for the present study is the collection of 5 years of daily upper air data from more than 600 radiosonde stations contained in the so-called MIT general circulation library. The mathematical expressions are formulated in the mixed space-time domain using Lorenz's approximate expression for available potential energy. However, for comparison, some terms have been computed in the time domain. Aside from the usual generation, conversion, and dissipation integrals the contribution by boundary terms at the equator must be included in the monthly budgets. Some of the main results are as follows. (1) Tentative box diagrams are given for the complete energy cycle for the 60-month, January, and July samples. (2) The exchange of mean available potential energy at the equatorial boundary plays an important role in the hemispheric energetics, especially in winter. (3) A maximum in generation of mean available potential energy (nearly 3 W m−2) takes place in the fall. Earlier investigators have found a maximum in midwinter; the discrepancy is explained. (4) It appears that the generation of eddy available potential energy constitutes the main driving force of the summer circulation. This generation is probably largely due to the release of latent heat in the intertropical regions. (5) Rather reliable estimates of the hemispheric dissipation rate of kinetic energy are made of about 2 W m−2 in the long-term mean, 3.5 W m−2 in winter, and about 1 W m−2 in summer. (6) The energy amounts and conversion terms appear to have about the same numerical value in the time domain, in the mixed spacetime domain, and most likely also in the space domain.

Radiation climate of New Delhi Part II : Longwave radiation and energy budget

Monthly budgets of long wave short wave, and net radiation, separate for air-space and air-soil interfaces, and also for the atmospheric column, are presented for the years 1964 and 1965 at New Delhi. A combination of direct radiation measurements at Lodi Rd. Observatory, New Delhi evaluations of satellite based scannings of the region, and climatonomical theories (as developed by H. Lettau), yields the monthly budgets of latent and sensible heat. Radiative shortwave heating and longwave cooling rates for the local atmospheric column are summarised for the seasons, resulting in a mean annual net cooling rate of 0. 4°C in both years.
 In this climate where the seasonal maximum of precipitation coincides closely with that of. insolation, the moisture budget at the air-soil Interface shows that about 80 per cent of the annual evaporation occurs from July to September In both years. Surface runoff appears to be restricted to the monsoon season and amounts to less than evapotranspiration even in the wettest month. Calculated values of exchangeable soil moisture were about twice as high in 1964 than in 1965 due to the intensive monsoon. The carry-over into the following dry season was considerable. Net moisture import (horizontal advection) into the atmospheric column over New Delhi was more than five times higher during the summer of 1964 than of 1965. The change over from moisture import to moisture export occurs abruptly with the greatest drop during October in both years.
 The calculation of a complete energy budget for the soil-air interface shows that due to the great demand of energy for evapotranspiration, monthly means of sensible heatflux, normally directed from the ground into the air during summer, can be reversed resulting in 'psychrometric cooling' of the ground. In 1964, such reversal occurred from July to September, but in 1965 it was weak and restricted to the month of September. Accordingly, the monthly mean surface temperature dropped from June to July by 10°Cin 1964, but only by 60Cin 1965. Flux of sensible heat from and into the soil reaches extremes in December and April, respectively, but turned out to be small in comparison with other constituents of the monthly heat budget.
 With the aid of the 'climatonomical' analysis method it is possible to establish quantitatively the constituent terms of the energy budget. For the atmospheric column, however, the energy supplied by advection cannot be separated from the contribution by subsidence. Considering the importance attributed to subsidence for maintaining arid conditions over northwestern India, a supplementary synoptic-aerological analysis of the atmospheric circulation over the region appears to be desirable in order to separate the effects of the two processes in the course of the year.

The "Problem" of the Spanish Theater Today

Three times a year in Spain the theatrical world is gripped by a fever of enthusiasm and optimism.* These occasions are the beginnings of the three individual seasons into which the theatrical year as a whole is divided, the Fall season, the Winter season, beginning after los Reyes, and the Spring season, beginning on the Sabado de Gloria. Everyone speaks hopefully of the new plays, and all look forward to a happy and prosperous run for them. The plays are produced, the reactions are mixed, an air of disenchantment begins to settle over the scene, and then the final stage of the cycle is reached, when the critics, authors, actors, producers, and other professional observers are prompted to ask each other a question that in essence is one, though it may be phrased in several ways: Is there a crisis in the Spanish theater today? What is the problem of the Spanish theater today? or Why is the Spanish theater in a state of decadence? In the ensuing debate few people are rash enough to declare that in their considered opinion there is no crisis in the Spanish theater. Only a consecrated figure like Benavente can even appear to say it as he did in an interview (April, 1954) on the occasion of the opening of his 162nd play, El marido de bronce. Asked what he thought of the much-discussed crisis of the theater, he answered: They have always talked about crisis and they will keep on talking about it, but don't you pay any attention. If any crisis exists it will be an economic one. In that final if, however, which Don Jacinto casually tacked on the end of his pronouncement, lies the theme of thousands of anguished words about the future of the theater in Spain. For the most part the critics, admitted y or not, approach the question with the conviction that the Spanish theater is confronted with some problems whose solutions cannot easily be perceived. One may conveniently divide these critics into two broad groups. Some of them, like Benavente, consider that a crisis does not exist in the artistic world but rather that it is primarily a commercial crisis which is perhaps due to factors beyond the control of the artist. Parenthetically, a playwright like Benavente in his eighty-eighth year who still managed to have several plays produced every year may perhaps be excused for believing that no artistic crisis exists. There are others who, admitting the economic crisis, place the blame upon the artists, and often more specifically upon the playwrights. The economic crisis has multiple aspects which some observers recognize, but for the most part discussion revolves about the rising costs of play production. As Benavente remarked in the previously mentioned interview, with a theater's monthly budget of the old days one could hardly buy a dinner today. The reasons for the rise in costs are familiar to those who are concerned with the problems of show business everywhere: high labor costs, taxes, rent; in short, all of those expenses which have to be met before the curtain can rise on a show.