Is sea-basing a viable method of providing logistic support to the UK amphibious force?

Maritime power has traditionally been a central part of the UK’s defence planning and is well suited to supporting a wide range of military operations. The littoral area has always created problems for naval planners as most landings historically have had to endure a tactical separation of the naval and land components, and hence an artificial seam between the Navy and the Marines. With the end of the Cold War, amphibious operations are going to be more difficult to conduct than in the past, and amphibious forces are going to have to adopt manoeuvre warfare capabilities in order to successfully complete their missions. It is very likely that amphibious forces will have to conduct operations against a numerically superior enemy, who is on his own terrain, and be surrounded by a neutral, if not hostile populace. As such, the concept of Operational Manoeuvre From The Sea (OMFTS) whereby the sea is used as a manoeuvre space, and command and control is fast enough to cope with large amounts of information, but at the same time allow subordinates maximum flexibility to use their initiative, is increasingly attractive. It will be important not only for the combat elements to be able to use this new concept, but the Combat Service Support (CSS) elements as well

Supply chain control: Trade-offs and system requirements

The official published version can be accessed from the link below.A paper describes the underlying forces which drive change in manufacturing enterprises and supply chains. It sets out the complexities in modern capitalism and global economics and illustrates the trade-offs that can be made. IT systems which are required to assist improvements to both customer service and enterprise manufacturing performance are explained, alluding to the special case for the semiconductor industry. Arguments are presented showing how the new tools being developed with the ESPRIT project 20544, X-CITTIC, will satisfy the control needs for a virtual enterprise. This paper describes the underlying forces which drive change in manufacturing enterprises and supply chains. It sets out the complexities in modem capitalism and global economics and illustrates the trade-offs that can be made. IT systems which are required to assist improvements to both customer service and enterprise manufacturing performance are explained alluding to the special case for the semiconductor industry. Finally it shows how the new tools being developed with the ESPRIT project 20544, XCITTIC, will satisfy the control needs for a virtual enterprise

Improving bankruptcy prediction in micro-entities by using nonlinear effects and non-financial variables

The use of non-parametric methodologies, the introduction of non-financial variables, and the development of models geared towards the homogeneous characteristics of corporate sub-populations have recently experienced a surge of interest in the bankruptcy literature. However, no research on default prediction has yet focused on micro-entities (MEs), despite such firms’ importance in the global economy. This paper builds the first bankruptcy model especially designed for MEs by using a wide set of accounts from 1999 to 2008 and applying artificial neural networks (ANNs). Our findings show that ANNs outperform the traditional logistic regression (LR) models. In addition, we also report that, thanks to the introduction of non-financial predictors related to age, the delay in filing accounts, legal action by creditors to recover unpaid debts, and the ownership features of the company, the improvement with respect to the use of solely financial information is 3.6%, which is even higher than the improvement that involves the use of the best ANN (2.6%)

Potentialities and usage of Internet communications: A qualitative and quantitative overview.

Technological innovation is the main responsible of the phenomenon called Internet. This innovative use of the medium accomplishes those concepts and dreams of science fiction's authors. Nevertheless, the new potentialities supplied by this new medium have only partially been analysed until today. Our purpose is to define a qualitative schema to investigate the main usage of Internet potentialities, joined with a quantitative analysis in the main geographic areas paying a special attention to the national and EEC data. The first goal is pursued identifying the better usage of the medium done by some representitives of the main socio-economic categories. These representitives could be chosen in any geographic area and their performances will be investigated, compared and used to define an analysing schema. The second objective is obtained using the best so-called "search engines", since the main characteristic of a site is represented by it's accessibility. Moreover, some cross-section data will be provided to enhance some more meaningful insights.

Analyzing the Economics Values of An Alternative Preprocessing Facility in the Biomass Feedstocks - Biorefinery Supply Chain

It is generally believed that preprocessing procedure can reduce the transportation and storage costs of biomass feedstock for biofuel production by condensing the feedstock’s size. However, the capital costs of preprocessing facilities could be significant in the feedstock logistics system. Applying a GIS and mixed-integer mathematical programming model, this study evaluates the economic values of a preprocessing technology, stretch‐wrap baling, in the biomass feedstock supply chain for a potential commercial-scale switchgrass biorefinery in East Tennessee. Preliminary results suggest that the stretch-wrap baling equipment outperforms the conventional hay harvest methods in terms of total delivered costs. Although the densification process involves additional capital and operation costs, the total delivered costs of switchgrass for a 25- million-gallon per year biorefinery in the preprocessing system is 12% − 21% lower than various logistic methods using conventional hay equipments.Biomass feedstock, cellulosic biofuel, logistic costs, preprocessing technology, Crop Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q16, D24,

How to Improve the Capture of Urban Goods Movement Data?

The surveys specifically focused on the thorough knowledge of urban freight transport appeared about ten years ago. The local problematic of goods transport at local level was partially taken into account by the city planners and by the researchers: until recent years, the integration of goods transport in the total urban flows models was estimated applying a multiplying factor to car traffic. Delivering goods was not considered like a concern.Because of the quick growth of car traffic in the cities, the main stakes changed too: the fight against traffic congestion, the management of the lack of space (shipment consolidation and storage), the attempts to reduce local environmental impacts and global externalities (energy saving, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions), and economic valuation of city centres (under the pressure of a slowed down economic growth).All these changes were taking place in a context in which available rooms for manoeuvre were limited by factors such as congestion, concerns about the quality of urban life and budget restriction. It resulted in a growing unease on the freight transport industry and the city authorities, the latter having little or no data, methods and references in order to elaborate a satisfactory policy framework.surveys on urban freight transport ; urban freight movements ; urban freight data collection ; urban goods data collection ; diversity of measurement units and methods ; state of the art

Has Toxicity Testing Moved into the 21st Century? A Survey and Analysis of Perceptions in the Field of Toxicology.

BackgroundTen years ago, leaders in the field of toxicology called for a transformation of the discipline and a shift from primarily relying on traditional animal testing to incorporating advances in biotechnology and predictive methodologies into alternative testing strategies (ATS). Governmental agencies and academic and industry partners initiated programs to support such a transformation, but a decade later, the outcomes of these efforts are not well understood.ObjectivesWe aimed to assess the use of ATS and the perceived barriers and drivers to their adoption by toxicologists and by others working in, or closely linked with, the field of toxicology.MethodsWe surveyed 1,381 toxicologists and experts in associated fields regarding the viability and use of ATS and the perceived barriers and drivers of ATS for a range of applications. We performed ranking, hierarchical clustering, and correlation analyses of the survey data.ResultsMany respondents indicated that they were already using ATS, or believed that ATS were already viable approaches, for toxicological assessment of one or more end points in their primary area of interest or concern (26-86%, depending on the specific ATS/application pair). However, the proportions of respondents reporting use of ATS in the previous 12 mo were smaller (4.5-41%). Concern about regulatory acceptance was the most commonly cited factor inhibiting the adoption of ATS, and a variety of technical concerns were also cited as significant barriers to ATS viability. The factors most often cited as playing a significant role (currently or in the future) in driving the adoption of ATS were the need for expedited toxicology information, the need for reduced toxicity testing costs, demand by regulatory agencies, and ethical or moral concerns.ConclusionsOur findings indicate that the transformation of the field of toxicology is partly implemented, but significant barriers to acceptance and adoption remain. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1435

Opportunities of University Business Incubation in the Less Favoured Regions of Transition Countries

The idea of setting up university business incubators (UBIs) has recently gained attention in the less favoured regions of the new entrants of the European Union. But the foreign best practices almost always derive from highly developed regions, which makes them difficult to adapt. In the lagging behind regions universities are unable to accomplish such a project without local government support and EU subsidies. Thus university business incubation can and must be interpreted as a local economic development tool. The main objective of present paper is to answer the question whether a UBI programme can be successful in a less favoured region of a transition country or not, and which are the main peculiarities that have to be considered when adapting the patterns of more developed regions. Raising the question is underlain by the observation that the international literature of business incubation pays little attention to the problem of the necessity and feasibility of incubation. First we review the most important findings of literature on UBI’s contribution to the enhancement of local university-industry relations with a special emphasis on the service providing function and the spin-off process. Second we interpret the results of an empirical analysis carried out in the Szeged sub-region, Hungary. We examined the expectations of local SMEs towards university-related incubation on a sample of 170. We supplemented this by analysing the entrepreneurial motivations of the students and, as a new feature, PhD students of the University of Szeged on samples of 286 and 134. Moreover we examined the sparse process of spin-off formation with interviews. The attitudes of local SMEs towards incubation are rather heterogeneous but some characteristic patterns can be identified. The analysis of students and PhD students and the interviews reinforced the hypothesis that incubation can only be the second step in enhancing the local knowledge commercialization, a well-developed pre-incubation strategy must be implemented prior to that. In the concluding part on the basis of the literature review and the empirical analysis we point out the factors which are necessary to consider in our opinion when planning and managing a UBI project in a less favoured region.