Search results

Abstract. In the present paper some of the problems related to the application of the continuum mechanics modelling to debris flow runout simulation are discussed. Particularly, a procedure is proposed to face the uncertainties in the choice of a numerical code and in the setting of rheological parameter values that arise when the prediction of a debris flow propagation is required. In this frame, the two codes RASH3D and FLO2D are used to numerically analyse the propagation of potential debris flows affecting two study sites in Southern Italy. For these two study sites, a lack in information prevents that the rheological parameters can be obtained from the back analysis of similar well documented debris flow events in the area. As a prediction of the possible runout area is however required by decision makers, an alternative approach based on the analysis of the alluvial fans existing at the toe of the two studied basins is proposed to calibrate rheological parameters on the safe side. From the comparison of the results obtained with RASH3D (where a Voellmy and a Quadratic rheologies are implemented) and FLO2D (where a Quadratic rheology is implemented) it emerges that, for the two examined cases, numerical analyses carried out with RASH3D assuming a Voellmy rheology can be considered on the safe side respect to those carried out with a Quadratic rheology.

Abstract

Hold a 'Hollywood Premiere' To Unveil PSA, Other Videos


Attracting Media Attention


Link Your Cause to Popular Current Issues


Grammar Resources


Are You Receiving NCR Online?


TV Commercials for $500


Time Management Skills


Work to Overcome Procrastination Hurdles


Career Decisions


Is It Time to Move On?


Starting From Scratch


No Mailing List? No Problem


Time Management


Evaluate Your Use of Time


Effective Surveys


Choose the Right Words, Get the Right Answers


Websites Help Create Meaningful Survey Samples


Useful Media Sites


Surefire Ways to Heighten Your Image


When Being Interviewed…


Outreach Strategies For Rural‐based Nonprofits


Pre‐planning Steps


Be Clear With Directions, Expectations


Involve Your Community


Time Capsule Invigorates Anniversary Celebration


Share Positive News


Publicize Notable Rankings to Internal, External Audiences


'Facts‐at‐a‐Glance' Handout Makes Great Leave‐behind


Showcase Volunteer Efforts


Thanks You Can Hold


Thank Employees With Printable Certificates


Make Our Ideas Your Own


Borrow Our Ideas: Modify NCR Ideas to Suit Your Needs


Nurture Next Generation


Be Willing to Mentor Future Communications Professionals


Web‐savvy Techniques


Flickr Provides Photo Storage and Sharing Options


Make the Most Of Executive Messages


Which Media Investments Offer Biggest Payback?


When a News Editor Says 'No'


Useful In‐house Tools


Guidelines Simplify Design Process

Poor performance indicates that an organization's routines are not well suited for its environment and prompts decision makers to search for solutions. However, results conflict regarding how this search process influences risk taking in organizations. Managers in some organizations facing actual or expected performance shortfalls tend to take risks, while managers in other poorly performing organizations avoid risky changes. This conflict is interesting because some level of risk taking appears necessary for organizations to remain competitive, adapt to their environment, and improve performance. This study examines several mechanisms that moderate risk taking following performance shortfalls. First, I draw from organizational learning theories to argue that organizations with limited operating experience are less buffered from failure, and hence that poor performance constrains risk taking at these organizations. Second, I argue that organizations with poor legitimacy are also less buffered, and hence that performance shortfalls also lead to risk aversion at these organizations. Third, I draw from structural inertia theory to suggest that older organizations are less able to support risk taking following performance shortfalls. A test of these hypotheses on the capacity expansion behavior of U.S. railroad companies generally supports these hypotheses, although the effect of age is weaker. The findings contribute to theories of organizational learning and to several perspectives in organization theory more broadly.

Abstract


There is evidence in neuroscience that the brain processes negative visual stimuli in a different manner than positive ones. Our study investigates, whether it is possible to transfer these findings to one specific, often‐neglected marketing stimulus, package design. For this purpose, we measured the brain activity of subjects while they had to make decisions about the attractiveness of certain fast moving consumer good packages. As predicted by consumer neuroscience, we found that attractive and unattractive packages are able to trigger different cortical activity changes. Contrasting attractive versus unattractive packages, revealed significant cortical activity changes in visual areas of the occipital lobe and the precuneus – regions associated with the processing of visual stimuli and attention. On the individual level, we found significant activity changes within regions of reward processing. On the other hand by contrasting unattractive versus attractive packages we found an increased activity in areas of the frontal lobe and insula cortex, regions often associated with processing aversive stimuli such as unfair offers or disgusting pictures. Although, these results are without any doubt preliminary they might explain why attractive packages gain more attention at the point‐of‐sale and this, in turn, positively influences turnovers of fast moving consumer goods.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Except for individuals 65 years of age and older, no other group in the United States has an influenza vaccination rate above one-third of the population, even among groups that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend for priority annual seasonal influenza vaccination. To improve the vaccination rate we need to know more about influenza vaccine psychographics among indifferent or resistant individuals or the attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and values surrounding their decision not to obtain annual vaccination. This formative research project is based on eight focus group discussions with 74 individuals from groups that do not participate in influenza vaccination at rates similar to the general population and/or are members of identifiable high-risk groups about their perceptions and beliefs about the flu shot. Three audience segments were identified: Plans to Get, Needs More Information, and Makes You Sick Because they have strongly held negative views toward the product, no special intervention should be directed toward the Makes You Sick segment. Since the actual product cannot be changed (vaccine), different aspects of the marketing mix of price, place, and promotion need to be adjusted to influence the Plans to Get and Needs More Information segments to obtain a vaccination. Ideas for appropriate promotional messages are offered.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of information sharing capability on buyer‐supplier relationships and firm performance. It is proposed that information sharing capability, the integration of a firm's information/decision systems and business processes with those of supply chain partners, is an antecedent of collaborative buyer‐supplier relationships, defined in terms of supply chain and relationship architecture. Further, it is proposed that these relationships positively impact a firm's market and financial performance.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses multiple linear regression to analyze a set of survey data from the USA, Europe and New Zealand.FindingsResults demonstrate positive relationships between information sharing capability and buyer‐supplier relationships, and between relationships and performance.Research limitations/implicationsInformation sharing capability and buyer‐supplier relationships are complex, multi dimensional constructs. While this research highlights their role in driving performance, further study is required to more fully capture their impact and to understand the implications for situational factors such as industry sector and transaction type.Practical implicationsResults from the study provide academics and policymakers with insights into key information sharing constructs related to the development of buyer‐supplier relationships. These provide guidance in developing the infrastructure to support such relationships.Originality/valueThis study adds to the extant literature by examining the dimensions of information sharing related to buyer‐supplier relationships and performance.

Customers increasingly demand that companies offer a wide variety of products and services. As a result, many companies spend millions of dollars conducting profitability analyses of their customers. For instance, the banking industry alone spends an estimated $500 million per year on customer profitability analyses. Accordingly, customer profitability analysis is listed as one of the recent major developments in managerial accounting (Cotton 2005). Customer profitability analysis refers to the practice of estimating the profitability of individual customers and identifying both customers that create value for the company and, just as importantly, those customers that destroy value. Effective customer profitability analysis provides the company with a strong competitive advantage by improving key strategic and operating decisions involving customer selection and retention. For example, Sprint Nextel drew the attention of investors, analysts, and customers alike when it "fired" 1,000 of its worst customers via a form letter (Srivastava 2007). This case reflects the experiences of several international companies in the automotive supply industry and provides you with an opportunity to enhance your knowledge about customer profitability. First, the case demonstrates the importance of customer profitability analysis. Second, the case enhances your ability to perform customer profitability analysis. Third, it helps you improve your critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills. Finally, the case enables you to integrate business knowledge across functional boundaries.

Abstract. Climate change dynamics have significant consequences on water resources on a watershed scale. With water becoming scarcer and susceptible to variation, the planning and reallocation decisions in watershed management need to be reviewed. This research focuses on an in-depth understanding of the current allocation balance of water resources among competitors, placed along the course of the Adda River. In particular, during the summer period, the demand for water dramatically increases. This is due to the increase in irrigation activities in the lower part of the basin and to the highest peaks of tourist inflow, in the Como Lake and Valtellina areas. Moreover, during these months, the hydroelectric reservoirs in the upper part of the Adda River basin (the Valtellina) retain most of the volume of water coming from the snow and glacier melt. The existing allocation problem among these different competing users is exacerbated by the decreasing water supplies. The summer of 2003 testified the rise in a number of allocation problems and situations of water scarcity that brought about environmental and economical consequences. The RICLIC project is committed to the understanding of water dynamics on a regional scale, to quantify the volumes involved and offer local communities an instrument to improve a sustainable water management system, within uncertain climate change scenarios.

Abstract. The precipitation forecasted by a numerical weather prediction model, even at high resolution, suffers from errors which can be considerable at the scales of interest for hydrological purposes. In the present study, a fraction of the uncertainty related to meteorological prediction is taken into account by implementing a multi-model forecasting approach, aimed at providing multiple precipitation scenarios driving the same hydrological model. Therefore, the estimation of that uncertainty associated with the quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF), conveyed by the multi-model ensemble, can be exploited by the hydrological model, propagating the error into the hydrological forecast. The proposed meteo-hydrological forecasting system is implemented and tested in a real-time configuration for several episodes of intense precipitation affecting the Reno river basin, a medium-sized basin located in northern Italy (Apennines). These episodes are associated with flood events of different intensity and are representative of different meteorological configurations responsible for severe weather affecting northern Apennines. The simulation results show that the coupled system is promising in the prediction of discharge peaks (both in terms of amount and timing) for warning purposes. The ensemble hydrological forecasts provide a range of possible flood scenarios that proved to be useful for the support of civil protection authorities in their decision.

AbstractWe seek dynamic server assignment policies in finite‐capacity queueing systems with flexible and collaborative servers, which involve an assembly and/or a disassembly operation. The objective is to maximize the steady‐state throughput. We completely characterize the optimal policy for a Markovian system with two servers, two feeder stations, and instantaneous assembly and disassembly operations. This optimal policy allocates one server per station unless one of the stations is blocked, in which case both servers work at the unblocked station. For Markovian systems with three stations and instantaneous assembly and/or disassembly operations, we consider similar policies that move a server away from his/her "primary" station only when that station is blocked or starving. We determine the optimal assignment of each server whose primary station is blocked or starving in systems with three stations and zero buffers, by formulating the problem as a Markov decision process. Using this optimal assignment, we develop heuristic policies for systems with three or more stations and positive buffers, and show by means of a numerical study that these policies provide near‐optimal throughput. Furthermore, our numerical study shows that these policies developed for assembly‐type systems also work well in tandem systems. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008

ABSTRACTSeparated parents have the joint responsibility to give their children access to the other parent. If they fail to reach a visitation agreement, the District Court will decide on one for them. In Sweden one demand can be supervision by a contact person. This paper is about court‐ordered visitations including supervision by a contact person. Different public systems, with different interpretations of the best interest of the child, have to interact in these cases: the District Court makes the decision on supervised visitation and the Social Services appoint a contact person and follow the intervention up. There is a shortage of research on this use of a contact person, and an exploratory research project is carried through: Three small‐scale studies, based on group‐interviews with family law social workers, social files and individual interviews with contact persons, supplement each other and form together a Social Services perspective on the intervention. The results are presented according to five themes: Social Services and the court; the families and children concerned; contact arrangements; termination of the intervention; Social Services' perceptions of the intervention. The conclusion is that contact person is perceived as a positive solution for children in visitation disputes involving risk. However, the intervention brings up some contradictory interests important to be conscious of.

Selectivity constitutes a sine qua non condition of application of Article 87(1) EC. Therefore, in theory, general measures open to all undertakings do not constitute State aid. This article tries to explore and clarify the notion of general measures, by reviewing and analysing the relevant ECJ case law, Commission decisions and communications. The analysis shows that there is a grey area, where there are no coherent borders between general and selective measures. It may appear in practice that the ECJ case law limits to a large degree the scope of general measures, and almost every State measure, even that of general economic policy, can ultimately be found selective and constitute State aid.
The question of where to draw the line between general and selective measures is addressed. It is argued that it should be accepted that there is no such a thing as a measure that affects all undertakings identically. Some undertakings will always profit more from the measure than others. This should not, however, make such measures automatically selective. More coherent approach to general measures by all actors is needed in order to make sure that the notion is not stretched too far, at the same time avoiding virtually all economic policy actions involving State resources being brought under the scope of Article 87(1) EC.

The physical and legal borders of the European Community have been subject to a large number of changes in recent years. Throughout this period of transition Member States have sought to ensure that certain parameters remain unchanged. One such example is the province of Member States to determine which behaviour to punish by way of criminal sanctions. However, the recent judgments of the (ECJ) in the Cases C-176/03 and C-440/05 have changed these parameters by confirming that the European Community may provide for the imposition of criminal sanctions in certain policies. This article outlines these judgments and examines their impact, addressing a number of questions they left open. It also seeks to highlight the challenges the Community legislature will face should it seek to integrate criminal sanctions into EC legislation. While the shortfalls of the 'double text' situation cannot be denied, these flaws result from a deliberate decision by the Member States to attribute criminal competence to the EU under the Third Pillar, rather than to the EC under the First Pillar. It is thus unfortunate that such a consideration was not given greater weight by either the ECJ in its judgments, or the Commission in its extensive interpretation of the Court's judgment in Case C-176/03.

AbstractThis paper explores the gender dimensions of group membership and social networks using a unique longitudinal data set from the rural Philippines. We investigate two types of social capital: membership in groups, or 'formal' social capital, and size of trust‐based networks or 'informal' social capital. Because men and women may have different propensities to invest in social capital, we analyse the determinants of group membership for men and women separately. We also disaggregate the analysis by type of group. The paper also examines the determinants of the density of social capital, proxied by the number of groups and the number of network members. Finally, it explores whether groups contribute to increased sizes of social networks. We find that men and women do not differ significantly in their probability of participating in groups or the number of groups they join. However, there are clear gender differences in the types of groups to which men and women belong. We also find that group membership does not, in general, increase network density. The size of one's informal networks is influenced by the location and migration decisions of one's sons and daughters, suggesting that sons and daughters play different roles in providing support to their households of origin. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Inflation targeting was adopted by several countries, including Sweden, in the 1990s. We evaluate the Swedish inflation targeting regime since 1995 using a novel approach based on a unique data set on the characteristics of collective wage agreements between 1908 and 2008. First, we establish that the length of wage contracts decreases in response to an increase in ?macroeconomic uncertainty? across policy regimes. Second, using contract length as the assessment criteria for regime performance, we find that the inflation targeting regime of 1995?2008 stands out as an exceptionally stable policy regime as judged by the willingness of wage contract-makers to repeatedly commit to three-year non-indexed wage agreements. In addition, inflation targeting gained instant credibility in the sense that the labor market organizations entered long-term wage agreements at the same time as this new regime was announced. Inflation targeting has thus reduced macroeconomic uncertainty compared to previous regimes adopted in Sweden during the 20th century. Our approach to evaluate inflation targeting is different from the traditional one commonly based on cross-section samples comparing inflation outcomes. Instead we focus on the actual decisions of private-sector wage setters under different monetary regimes. Judging from their behavior across a century of observations, inflation targeting in Sweden is a success – at least so far.