The Character X Factor in Selecting Leaders: Beyond Ethics, Virtues, and Values

Leading with character requires a person to maintain a delicate balance of certain traits and understand the tensions which exist between humility and conviction, reluctance and courage, and vulnerability and integrity. A true leader must look beyond the content of a problem and rather examine the context of his or her individual make-up in relationship to themselves as well as to their surroundings

Designing Wind Turbine Condition Monitoring Systems Suitable for Harsh Environments

Research into wind turbine condition monitoring is continually receiving greater attention due to the potential benefits from condition monitoring systems (CMS). These benefits can only be realised with high reliability of the condition monitoring system itself. This paper discusses how CMS reliability can be increased, by introducing four types of robustness and how to design the CMS to meet these requirements. The paper uses a case study CMS installation to illustrate the design requirements, and lessons learned from the installation process

Assessment of the potential for developing a micro-launcher industry in South Africa

Small satellites have dramatically lowered the barriers to participating in space activities for many emerging countries, including South Africa. The rapid up-take of this facet of space technology has spurred the development of several micro-launchers dedicated to lofting small satellites to low Earth orbit. However, the majority of these micro-launcher initiatives and the majority of spaceports in use are located in the northern hemisphere, and there are currently no operational spaceports in Africa. In this study the potential for developing a micro-launcher industry in South Africa is explored, building on the launch facilities established for the previous space programme of the 1980s and early 1990s, and existing capabilities in present-day academic institutions and industry. Potential markets, financial requirements, technical feasibility, available infrastructure, and regulatory and policy aspects of such a venture are reviewed with respect to South Africa’s current political situation and attitude towards space activities. Several possible options for establishing small satellite launch capabilities in South Africa are used as a framework to assess the feasibility of a micro-launcher industry in South Africa. These range from a simple “ship and shoot” scenario with no indigenously developed technology to more complex cooperative arrangements which would, to varying degrees, require technology transfers and cooperation with potential international partners

Analysis and quantification of the benefits of interconnected distribution system operation

In the UK, the Capacity to Customers (C2C) project is underway to determine the potential benefits of increased interconnection in distribution systems, combined with demand side response technology. Managed contracts with customers, i.e., the agreement that certain loads are interruptible following system faults, allows distribution circuits to be loaded beyond the limits presently required for security of supply. This potentially permits load growth but avoids the cost and environmental impact of conventional network reinforcement. This paper provides the results of electrical system modelling to quantify the benefits of the C2C operation, using actual circuit data and typical load distributions. Based upon simulations of these circuits, it is shown that increased interconnection generally leads to minor improvements in electrical losses and system voltage. By connecting managed (i.e., interruptible) loads, circuits typically can be loaded significantly further than the present practice in the UK—an average increase of 66% for radial operation and 74% for interconnected systems

Understanding Christian Perfection and its Struggle with Antinomianism

Every so often, a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary will notice a current student with exceptional promise. The Asbury Journal wants to help highlight the work of rising academics by publishing works from such students. This paper is an example of such a work, brought to the attention of the editor by Dr. Larry Wood. Much of the confusion regarding John Wesley’s phrase, Christian perfection, comes from the western tendency to define “perfection” as a state of infallibility (from the Latin perfectio) rather than a process of spiritual maturing based upon the Greek word for perfection, teleios (Matthew 5:48). Misunderstandings are further perpetuated when the moral law of God is conflated with the ceremonial and civil laws of the Old Testament. This error has led to a revival of antinomianism, justification without sanctification, which was the very issue that John Wesley and John Fletcher strove against in their own day

Active Assessment of U.S. Livestock Biosecurity and Policies

Effective livestock disease management is a fundamental necessity for producers to provide and the government to guarantee a safe and secure food supply for consumers. It is the responsibility of both parties to ensure that the industry is appropriately protected from Foreign Animal Diseases (FADs). Producers, consumers, communities, businesses, and the environment can all suffer when an FAD outbreak occurs. To what extent an outbreak can be damaging depends greatly on the level of biosecurity producers have in place and the livestock disease management procedures government officials have created. Currently in the United States, more work can be done on both sides. This study looks at what producers are currently doing in regard to disease prevention on their operations, what they prefer, and what they are willing to improve upon.Livestock producers were surveyed, and their responses were analyzed in efforts to answer two separate questions: What are poultry producers’ willingness to pay (WTP) to adopt on-farm carcass disposal capabilities, and what indemnity policy do feedlot operators prefer. Preventative biosecurity at the farm level is covered thoroughly throughout the literature, however, a minimal amount of research has been conducted on producers’ preferences and decision-making processes post-FAD outbreak, which is the focus of this work. Individual operation characteristics provided additional factors for the econometric analysis of each study. A one and one-half bound dichotomous choice question allowed an interval regression model to be estimated for poultry producers WTP for on-farm carcass disposal showing poultry producers were willing to pay $15,651 on average (one-time payment). Producers ranked four different indemnity policies in order of preference, which allowed a ranked-order probit model to estimate what policies are preferred by feedlot operators and the factors contributing to that policy. In general, livestock insurance with government subsidized premiums was the second-best choice behind status quo policy potentially providing a next best option in terms of producer preferences. By analyzing this type of producer information, policy writers and industry leaders can create new policies that both encourage early disease reporting and incentivize greater biosecurity implementation, which will reduce the effects of FAD outbreaks when they occur

Attribute processing in environmental choice analysis: implications for willingness to pay

Data from a discrete choice experiment is used to investigate the implications of failing to account for attribute processing strategies (APSs). The research was designed to elicit the economic benefits associated with landscape restoration activities that were intended to remediate environmental damage caused by illegal dumping activities. In this paper we accommodate APSs using an equality constrained latent class model. By retrieving the conditional class membership probabilities we recover estimates of the weights that each respondent assigned to each attribute, which we subsequently use ensure unnecessary weight is not allocated to attributes not attended to by respondents. Results from the analysis provide strong evidence that significant gains in models fit as well as more defensible and reliable willingness to pay estimates can be achieved using when the APSs are accounted for.Attribute processing strategies, environmental restoration, equality constrained latent class model, multinomial logit model, willingness to pay, Environmental Economics and Policy,