Arctic States' Strategies - How to Defend the Arctic Market

To defend a market, the acting firms need defence strategies. The eight Arctic States have all published their own national strategic document for the Arctic region. In the Strategies they describe how they will act in this Arctic market. The Arctic is an area undergoing a change. With the last decades of melting ices as a result of the increased global warming, the Arctic is a more available region to explore and exploit for stakeholders. Defence strategies are used by firms to strengthen and defend their positions and interests in a market. In this study the theory and strategies that are used are collected from Ehrmann et al. They are the deterrence strategy, shakeout strategy and “take the money and run” strategy. To make the analysis of the Arctic States use of defence strategies more comprehensible the study is divided into three areas: environment, economy and security. The result shows that according to the conditions, such as the predicted lifecycle of products, age of market, number of competitors and the phase they are in (pre- or post-entry phase) the most common is the deterrence strategy followed by the shakeout strategy. Despite its northerly position the Arctic is a hot topic

Competing Orders in a Nearly Antiferromagnetic Metal

We study the onset of spin-density wave order in itinerant electron systems via a two-dimensional lattice model amenable to numerically exact, sign-problem-free determinantal quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The finite-temperature phase diagram of the model reveals a dome-shaped $d$-wave superconducting phase near the magnetic quantum phase transition. Above the critical superconducting temperature, we observe an extended fluctuation regime, which manifests itself in the opening of a gap in the electronic density of states and an enhanced diamagnetic response. While charge density wave fluctuations are moderately enhanced in the proximity of the magnetic quantum phase transition, they remain short-ranged. The striking similarity of our results to the phenomenology of many unconventional superconductors points a way to a microscopic understanding of such strongly coupled systems in a controlled manner

Quality variation in comminuted forest fuels delivered during the winter in north Sweden

Swedish legislation stipulates the precision required for estimates of parameters used to determine the value of various forest fuels. The net energy value of fuel, as it is received, is often used to set the trade price. The estimate of energy content is based on the moisture content of samples taken from each truckload and the weight of the biomass; the ash content and net calorific value are measured a few times each year. Hence, it is necessary to know the variation in moisture content to ensure that a sufficient number of samples are taken, a number based on the allowed variation and precision of estimates, as defined in the legalization. In this study, the variation in moisture content was measured by taking samples from 18 truckloads of comminuted forest fuels during the winter. The results showed that the current sampling regime, i.e., manually taking four samples from each truckload, is sufficient for deliveries with 10 truckloads for logging residue chips and 4 for stem wood chips. The number of samples should be increased to 12-43, 8-21, and, 17-82 depending on assortment for what the measuring act defines as large deliveries (>=50 tonnes; >=3 truckloads), medium-sized deliveries (25 tonnes; 2 truckloads) and single truck deliveries (<= 25 tonnes; 1 truckload), respectively. Current research into fast online sampling and analysis methods could resolve this issue for small deliveries

The cost of closed terminals in the supply chain for a potential biorefinery in northern Sweden

Establishment of biorefineries for processing forest biomass in the Nordic region is extremely costly due to the high investment, running, and procurement costs. Procurement costs could be reduced by allowing all actors to open access to all available terminals in an area (regardless of ownership) and allowing trucks with higher gross weight. These impacts of changes were evaluated for deliveries of logging residue and energy wood chips to a potential biorefinery, from two suppliers in northern Sweden. Open access to all terminals reduced the terminal-procurement costs by 2-6% and the terminal-to-biorefinery transportation costs by 7-9%. When 74 tonnes trucks were used instead of 60 tonnes, the terminal-to-biorefinery transportation costs were reduced by 4 and 3%, in the current situation and with open access to terminals, respectively. However, the largest effect of open access was that the fraction of short-distance transportation to terminals and train transportation from terminals increased significantly. This indicated that open access to terminals and relatively heavy trucks between terminals and the biorefinery are preferable from both environmental and economic perspectives. Furthermore, the estimated cost saving was adequate and should allow the deliverers to pay a reasonable fee for the use of terminal space

Opportunity cost of several methods for determining forest biomass terminal locations in Northern Sweden

Long distance transportation of forest biomass is often unavoidable because the biomass is dispersed over large land areas. This is a problem that limits the development of biorefineries all over the world. The use of biomass terminals where forest biomass is transported to, stored, processed (mostly by mobile machinery), and reloaded can facilitate more environmentally friendly and efficient transportation to a biorefinery. The challenge is to identify the locations that should be selected for terminal establishment in order to minimize the cost of biomass procurement. In this study, locations for terminal establishment are proposed based on an optimization method (Combopt) that simultaneously minimizes the harvesting, transportation, and terminal costs for round wood and logging residues. The outcome of this method was compared with several other methods imitating situations with limited knowledge to estimate potential opportunity costs of potential knowledge deficiency when selecting terminal locations. The results of the Combopt method suggest that six terminals are required in order to minimize the overall cost of satisfying the estimated demand from the biorefineries. The opportunity cost of alternative terminal selection methods ranged from 3.1 to 35.4 million SEK (0.5-6.1% of total procurement cost). Methods that considered biomass relatively close to terminals had lower opportunity costs, together with methods minimizing transportation and terminal cost for the most common wood assortment. The methods and results could be applicable in other parts of the world were similar problems exists in forestry and other industries

The smallest eigenvalue of Hankel matrices

Let H_N=(s_{n+m}),n,m\le N denote the Hankel matrix of moments of a positive measure with moments of any order. We study the large N behaviour of the smallest eigenvalue lambda_N of H_N. It is proved that lambda_N has exponential decay to zero for any measure with compact support. For general determinate moment problems the decay to 0 of lambda_N can be arbitrarily slow or arbitrarily fast. In the indeterminate case, where lambda_N is known to be bounded below by a positive constant, we prove that the limit of the n'th smallest eigenvalue of H_N for N tending to infinity tends rapidly to infinity with n. The special case of the Stieltjes-Wigert polynomials is discussed

Towards an Understanding of Rich Picture Interpretation

This paper considers the value of the Rich Picture (RP) as a means to capture data from multiple groups exploring a question, problem or issue. RPs emerge from group work by unravelling and integrating understandings, but to date there have been no attempts to consider ways in which the RPs from different groups analysing the same question can be, or indeed should be, objectively compared. The aim of this paper is to investigate the maximum learning potential from the RP, and we develop and use a form of Content Analysis (CA) called Eductive Interpretation (EI) specifically for RPs. The paper illustrates the process of EI by drawing upon a series of RPs created by groups in the Lebanon. The groups were all working on issues involved in coastal zone management, and the resulting analysis presents some of the insights that were gained. The paper finally discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of EI applied to RPs

Evaluation of Chipping Productivity with Five Different Mobile Chippers at Different Forest Sites by a Stochastic Model

It is important to evaluate chipping productivity that often differed according to the timing of observations and varied unexpectedly. A variation in production was the major concern of stakeholders for sustainable forest operation to establish regularly attainable production schedules on many operational levels. The aim of this study was to estimate the variance of chipping productivity by using a stochastic simulation model to achieve the objective evaluation of chipper performances. Chipping operations of five different kinds of mobile chippers, i.e. three smaller and two middle and larger ones in horse powers, were investigated. Probability distributions of material size and feeding time for chipping in a log-normal distribution were estimated. The estimates were made based on chipping operations performed 2000 or 4000 times by mechanical repetitions. Except for the largest chipper, whose observed productivity was 338 loose m3/hr, all of the observed productivities, varying from 18 to 68 loose m3/hr, were located within a two-sided confidential interval whose difference between both ends was 4 to 10 loose m3/hr. The estimates were, generally, reliable with small variances around the median productivity values in the model. By this stochastic model, chipper productivity could be shown objectively, while the accuracy would be improved more by increasing sample size and accurate material size measurement. It was elucidated that the operations followed by chipping should encompass enough volume capacity to provide stable chipping productivity