Terms Of Changes In Production Research Articles

RATIONAL MODES OF GAS TRANSPORT SYSTEMS IN THE CONDITIONS OF UNSTATIONARY GAS TRANSPORT

The problem of rational regulation of the operation modes of the gas transportation system, which is operated in conditions of non-stationary gas transportation, is considered. An assessment of the mathematical modeling of non-stationary processes in complex gas transport systems with uneven gas consumption and diversification of sources of energy supply is given. Based on analytical studies, recommendations are made on the influence of various parameters on the efficiency of compressor station operation. Dependencies are obtained that express the nature of gas transport process control, which can be applied in each specific case to determine the response of the system to a change in the control factor. Modeling of non-stationary objects of gas transport systems should be carried out using an adaptive linearized system, which implements the principle of energy-efficient regulation, i.e. it allows to specify the parameters of the technological object and control its operation at the same time. As the analysis showed, the given technological constraints on pressure are presented in terms of changes in productivity and can be combined with constraints on the productivity of the compressor station. The obtained limits of technological admissibility for the average daily gas consumption are not constants, but some functions of time, the behavior of which is determined by the nature of gas consumption. The use of the specifics of the interrelationship of restrictions caused by the technology of gas transport, in order to build simpler algorithms for its solution, made it possible to create a methodology for forecasting the system's operating modes in conditions of non-stationary gas consumption.

A descriptive survey of specialty pharmacy team members' perceptions of interactions with field representatives from pharmaceutical companies.

BACKGROUND: It is not well understood in literature what the time spent between health care professionals, including pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, and pharmaceutical field specialists equates to in terms of changes in productivity or lost time, the educational value provided, or the nature of the resources provided in terms of improving patient care. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the volume of, and time spent in, pharmaceutical field representative (PFR) meetings by members of an integrated specialty pharmacy team at a large academic medical center. METHODS: A 16-item survey tool used skip and branching logic comprising binary, multiple-choice, multiple-select, and open-ended items was distributed to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians at a health-system specialty pharmacy on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. The survey assessed locations of interactions with PFR, who initiated the request, reason for interaction, time spent, whether the participant felt the interaction provided value, and whether it contributed to them working a longer shift or compromising time spent on patient care that day. RESULTS: There were a total of 108 responses. Of those, 44 responses documented having an interaction with a PFR, and the remaining responses indicated no interaction that week. Only 5 (11.4%) of the interactions were pharmacy team member initiated. Among the pharmacy team member-initiated meetings, all respondents stated that the interaction had provided value, and none reported that it led to a longer workday. Conversely, of the 36 pharmaceutical representative-initiated interactions, 15 (41.6%) found value and 5 (13.8%) said that their workday was elongated because of these interactions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate that the majority of encounters taking place between our specialty pharmacy team members and PFRs did not result in knowledge gained or provision of tools and resources to support our patients. The next steps include 3 specific proposed changes to how our team responds to meeting requests from PFRs, specifically aimed at reducing pipeline presentations, reducing meetings pertaining to limited distribution drugs not accessible to the specialty pharmacy, and reducing meetings with the intent of introduction or pass off of contacts between PFRs.

Measuring the performance of small, medium and large manufacturing in Punjab: A bootstrapped Malmquist index analysis

The manufacturing sector has played a pivotal role for the development of the economies. It generates jobs, earn foreign reserves by exports and serves domestic economy as well. Given the importance of manufacturing sector, the performance measurement of this sector has been the main interest of economists, researchers and policymakers. The objective of the present study is to measure the performance of small, medium and large scale manufacturing industries. We utilized non-parametric approach to measure the performance by using survey panel data during 1995-2005. Further, for hypotheses testing, we use bootstrapping approach to test the null of insignificant change in the performance measures. We found that small and large scale manufacturing industries do not significantly change their technological frontier during the study period, while, both are highly efficient due to the better operation and management. Further, for high efficiency, the contribution of scale efficiency is larger as compare to the operation and management in case of large scale manufacturing industries. On the other hand, medium scale industries significantly shifted their technological frontier and adopted new technology or innovations, this sector is also efficient due to the better operation and management. However, the performance of all these manufacturing industries in terms of productivity change is not satisfactory. We conclude that by and large, the manufacturing industry has been endeavoring to improve its efficiency by expanding production with the help of available resources and administrative strategies. The conspicuous element is that the firms are reluctant to put resources into R&D which can shift production frontier upward. Keywords: Small, Medium and Large manufacturing, Performance, DEA, Bootstrapping, Punjab

Satellite assessment of particulate matter and phytoplankton variations in the Santa Barbara Channel and its surrounding waters: Role of surface waves

AbstractSatellite observations of chlorophyll in coastal waters are often described in terms of changes in productivity in response to regional upwelling processes while optical backscattering coefficients are more often linked to episodic inputs of suspended sediments from storm runoff. Here we show that the surface gravity wave resuspension of sediments has a larger role in controlling backscatter than previously considered. Almost 18 years of SeaWiFS, MODIS, MERIS, and VIIRS satellite imagery of the Santa Barbara Channel, California and its surrounding waters spectrally merged with the Garver‐Siegel‐Maritorena bio‐optical model were used to assess the controls on suspended particle distributions. Analysis revealed that chlorophyll blooms in the warmer portions of the domain occur in phase with SST minima, usually in early spring, while blooms in the cooler regions lag SST minima and occur simultaneously to the strongest equatorward winds every year, often in the summer. Tight coupling between the optical variables was seen in offshore areas, as expected for productive waters. However, values of backscatter near the coast were primarily modulated by surface waves. This relationship holds throughout all seasons and is stronger within the 100 m isobath, but often extends tens of kilometers offshore. This forcing of particle resuspension by surface waves is likely a feature ubiquitous in all coastal oceans characterized by fine sediments. The implication of surface wave processes determining suspended particle loads far beyond the surf zone has large consequences for the interpretation of satellite ocean color signals in coastal waters and potentially redefines the extent of the littoral zone.

Environmental Investment and Firm Performance: A Panel VAR Approach

This paper analyzes the relation between three dimensions of firm performance - productivity, energy efficiency, and environmental performance - and shed light on the role of environmental investment. Data from Swedish industry between 2002 and 2008 is utilized to generate the three performance measures at the firm level. Environmental investments are efforts to reduce environmental impact, which may also affect firm competitiveness, in terms of changes in productivity, and spur more (or less) efficient use of energy. A panel vector auto-regression (VAR) methodology is utilized to investigate the causal relationship between the three dimensions of performance and environmental investment. Results show that energy efficiency and environmental performance are integrated. Improved environmental performance and energy efficiency - induced by external or internal policy - boosts next period productivity, which would corroborate the Porter hypothesis and the notion of strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR). An increase in productivity constrains next period environmental performance and energy efficiency, while increasing environmental investments. This is indicative of opportunism or the available funds hypothesis. The former suggesting in good times managers allocate resources to e.g. managerial perks rather than improving environmental and/or energy performance, while still, to avoid regulatory penalty, uphold some level of environmental investment. The latter explanation argues that managers invest in environmental capital in order to reduce environmental impacts and boost goodwill for their business, but this investment requires resources and, in the short-term, harms energy and environmental performance. Finally, an increase in environmental investment improves next period environmental performance, which would suggest that environmental investments have the intended and expected effect; it reduces the environmental burden caused by the firm. As a consequence, in a second step, the increased environmental performance will tend to increase productivity in the next period, which suggests that environmental investments can boost productivity channeled via enhanced environmental performance. 1

Productivity change and its determinants among leading mobile operators in Europe

The European mobile telecommunications industry has seen increased competition and market saturation in recent years, so improving productivity will become crucially important for mobile operators in the near future. This study adopts a bootstrap Malmquist index approach to estimate productivity change among a sample of 23 of Europe's leading mobile operators over the 2008 to 2009 period. Using a second-stage regression, this article also analyses the determinants of productivity changes in terms of regulation, competition and ownership structure. The results show that mobile companies operating in countries that have recently joined the EU have a positive association with productivity change, in contrast to their counterparts in South-East Europe. Concerning market competition, the leading mobile operators that experience higher productivity changes operate in more concentrated markets. The results also indicate that international mobile operators perform better in terms of productivity change than their national equivalents. Finally, some of the implications of the findings for mobile operators’ management and policymakers are provided.

Dynamics of productivity in higher education: cross-european evidence based on bootstrapped Malmquist indices

This study examines patterns of productivity change in a large set of 266 public higher education institutions (HEIs) in 7 European countries across the time period 2001–2005. We adopt consistent bootstrap estimation procedures to obtain confidence intervals for Malmquist indices of HEI productivity and their components. Consequently, we are able to assess the statistical significance of changes in HEI productivity, efficiency and technology. Our results suggest that, assessed vis-a-vis a common ‘European’ frontier, HEI productivity rose on average by 4 % annually. Statistically significant changes in productivity were registered in 90 % of observations on the institutions in our sample, but statistically significant annual improvements in overall productivity took place in only 56 % of cases. There are considerable national differences, with German, Italian and Swiss HEIs performing better in terms of productivity change than HEIs from the other countries examined.

Dynamics of Productivity in Higher Education - Cross-European Evidence Based on Bootstrapped Malmquist Indices

This study examines patterns of productivity change in a large set of 266 public higher education institutions (HEIs) in 7 European countries across the time period 2001–2005. We adopt consistent bootstrap estimation procedures to obtain confidence intervals for Malmquist indices of HEI productivity and their components. Consequently, we are able to assess the statistical significance of changes in HEI productivity, efficiency and technology. Our results suggest that, assessed vis-a-vis a common ‘European’ frontier, HEI productivity rose on average by 4% annually. Statistically significant changes in productivity were registered in 90% of observations on the institutions in our sample, but statistically significant annual improvements in overall productivity took place in only 56% of cases. There are considerable national differences, with German, Italian and Swiss HEIs performing better in terms of productivity change than HEIs from the other countries examined.

Using Frontier Efficiency Analysis to Measure Impacts of Financial Holding Company System on Operational Performance of Subsidiary Banks

In response to international competition after Taiwan joined the WTO, the successive establishment of financial holding companies gives impetus to the trend towards shareholding concentration, large-scale organizational structure and diversification of services for financial institutions, all of which are expected to have major impacts on the future of Taiwan's banking industry. This study attempts to explore the influence of a financial holding company (FHC) system on the operational performance of subsidiary banks by using a sample of domestic banks taken during the period 1999-2007. Techniques of nonparametric frontier efficiency analysis are employed to measure the banks’ performance. The major findings of the study are as follows. First, in general, there were no significant differences in operational performance between the FHC and non-FHC subsidiary banks. However, the former outperformed the latter in technical efficiency after the FHC Act came into effect and, from then on, new FHCs were set up one after another. Second, the FHC subsidiary banks showed no apparent improvement in operational performance after the formation of FHCs. Third, the FHC subsidiary banks were significantly different from the non-FHC banks in terms of productivity change and technological change as well as scale efficiency before joining the FHCs. However, the differences became insignificant after they joined the FHCs. Fourth, the changes in technology, technical efficiency and scale efficiency of the FHC subsidiary banks presented a statistically significant difference between the pre- and post- establishment periods of their FHCs.

The interpretation of spikes and trends in concentration of nitrate in polar ice cores, based on evidence from snow and atmospheric measurements

Abstract. Nitrate is frequently measured in ice cores, but its interpretation remains immature. Using daily snow surface concentrations of nitrate at Halley (Antarctica) for 2004–2005, we show that sharp spikes (>factor 2) in nitrate concentration can occur from day to day. Some of these spikes will be preserved in ice cores. Many of them are associated with sharp increases in the concentration of sea salt in the snow. There is also a close association between the concentrations of aerosol nitrate and sea salt aerosol. This evidence is consistent with many of the spikes in deposited nitrate being due to the conversion or trapping of gas-phase nitrate, i.e. to enhanced deposition rather than enhanced atmospheric concentrations of NOy. Previously, sharp spikes in nitrate concentration (with concentration increases of up to a factor 4 seen in probably just one snowfall) have been assigned to sharp production events such as solar proton events (SPEs). We find that it is unlikely that SPEs can produce spikes of the kind seen. Taken together with our evidence that such spikes can be produced depositionally, we find that it is not possible to track past SPEs without carrying out a new multi-site and multi-analyte programme. Seasonal and interannual trends in nitrate concentration in cores from any single site cannot be interpreted in terms of production changes until the recycling of nitrate from central Antarctica to coastal Antarctica is better quantified. It might be possible to assess the interannual input of NOy to the Antarctic lower troposphere by using a network of cores to estimate variability in the total annual deposition across the continent (which we estimate to be 9±2×107kg/a – as NO3−), but it will first have to be established that the outflow across the coast can be ignored.

Foreign Exchange Equivalence and Project Appraisal Procedures

This paper investigates the implications of different adjustment mechanisms for shadow pricing traded and nontraded goods in a flexible price model. A foreign exchange equivalent rule that can be readily adapted whatever the adjustment mechanism is derived. It is shown that traded commodities are always valued at border prices and nontraded commodities can always be shadow priced in terms of changes in production and consumption of traded goods valued at border prices. The role of the shadow exchange rate and the implications for measuring the balance of payments effect when no tax adjustment policy is assumed are also discussed. Copyright 1990 by Royal Economic Society.

MIGRANT LABOUR AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

This discussion argues the following: that the movement of what has traditionally been termed migrant in and between developing countries can be important for development in a number of ways thus far given little or no atteniton in the literature; and the impact of labor movements varies greatly from country to country and area to area depending particularly on the length of absence of the laborer from his/her home area and on the similarities and differences between the economic and physical environments of the migrants home and the area or areas in which he/she works while away from home. The net effect on economic development of a particular movement of economically productive persons may be analyzed in terms of changes in production productivity and consumption in both the labor supplying (home) and the labor receiving (host) areas. Such changes may come about through variations in the relative supplies of productive factors in the volume of consumer demand in the home and host areas and through transfers of attitudes institutions and techniques of production. Movements of economically productive persons may help to induce changes in economic activities other than those in which they are directly employed. Both the direction and the magnitude of these effects are likely to vary from 1 pattern of migration to another. There appears to be an implicit assumption in the literature that whether or not the net economic effect is positive most of the impact on the supplying economy is negative. The economic impact of migrants is very much a function of the economic characteristics of the supplying economy and the host economies with which it is linked by migrants. Areas supplying migrants are likely to benefit from net additions to both human and physical capital from a widening of consumption expectations and horizons and from technological change especially after migrants return from the host economy. Whether or not these beneficial effects will be outweighed by decreases in output depends primarily on the extent to which migrants absences are coordinated with the structure and time pattern of employment opportunities in the home and host areas. Areas receiving migrants are most likely to benefit from low wages development of unused resources and the spread of new technology. Additionally they may gain entrepreneurs and additions to physical capital especially if some migrants settle permanently. Migrants may contribute to development problems by increasing inflationary pressures or by adding to social and political tensions but their presence may serve to stimulate production and investment in both the private and the public sectors.

A Short-Run Measure of the Relative Economic Contribution of Direct Foreign Investment

CCORDING to a recent estimate by the A Department of Commerce, the United States direct foreign investments are in excess of $22 billion and are expanding at a record rate. How much do we know about the impact of United States enterprises abroad on the host countries, and what is their economic contribution in particular? Aside from a few isolated case studies,' our knowledge is extremely limited. This is perhaps because direct foreign investment is of relatively recent origin. On the basis of total investment made by Britain during the nineteenth century, bonds and preferred stocks comprised indeed no less than three-quarters of the outstanding total in I9I3 2 As a result, there is a lack of concensus among economists of what constitutes economic contribution, let alone an acceptable measure of it. It is argued that direct foreign investment exerts an impact on almost every aspect of life in the recipient country.3 Measurement in some cases is extremely difficult if not impossible, and precise statistics which would illustrate the relationships are in general not available. For example, some foreign enterprises contribute to the opening of new frontiers, resource discovery, and creation of social capital in the form of road building, provision of public utility services, etc., and most of the foreign manufacturing operations engage in the training of skilled and semi-skilled workers. In this way, the foreign establishments, consciously or not, have created an ever-growing supply of many of the modern skills which are indispensable to the economic and social progress of the host countries. stimulation of more private investment within less developed countries is intimately related to the development of a spirit of enterprise among the natives themselves. Here again, the foreign companies can make an important contribution. They provide living examples of the material rewards of private enterprise and its importance to the community, and they also familiarize the natives with modern business attitudes and activities and disseminate the necessary managerial know-how. In short, such direct foreign operations give the wage and market economy its decisive start, with an attendant loosening of the bonds of the static self-sufficient agrarian societies. benefits presented above are undoubtedly valid. broad social and economic consequences of transformation should not be passed over lightly. But the nature of these impacts is generally regarded as belonging to the long-term effects of an industrialization process. In short-run analysis, economists customarily confine themselves to the immediate impact of investment in terms of changes in production, employment, and income. In this respect, the statistical survey conducted by the Department of Commerce on the various phases of United States business operations in Latin America is worthy of attention, because the survey provides, for the first time, data on production, income, and capital accumulation in this area.4 However, comprehensive as the data are, with figures classified by industry and by country, there is no criterion in the survey by which we can arrive at an over-all evaluation of the relative contributions by United States operations in different industrial groups and/or countries. purpose of this paper is to utilize the data in the survey in such a way as to make a composite ranking possible. In attempting to do this, we shall first sort out the data in accordance with four criteria which we shall lay down I See six case studies on U.S. business performance abroad published by the National Planning Association. They are Sears, Roebuck de Mexico, Casa Grace in Peru, Philippine American Life Ins. Co., Creole Petroleum Corporation in Venezuela, Firestone Operations in Liberia, and Stanvac in Indonesia. 2R. Nurkse, The Problem of International Investment Today in the Light of Nineteenth-Century Experience, Economic Journal, LXIV (December I954), 744-58. 8For a more detailed listing of possible principal benefits of foreign direct investment to the host country, see the policy statement of the National Planning Association in its series of case studies referred to above. ' U.S. Investm6nt in Latin America (I957).