Using EVA As A Decision Metric In Capital Budgeting

Economic Value Added (EVA) has been growing in popularity within the business community as a measure of both value and performance.  Despite this growth, EVA has yet to receive significant attention in the academic literature, particularly in micro decision-making areas such as capital budgeting.  This paper examines the efficacy of EVA as a capital budgeting decision-making aid.  Although a theoretical link between EVA and net present value (NPV) has been noted, issues related to its implementation have yet to be addressed.  Our analysis details conditions under which EVA produces managerial decisions similar to those obtained by the NPV rule.  Contrary to some claims, we find EVA and NPV produce different accept/reject decisions in a variety of commonly encountered capital budgeting situations

HIV/AIDS Employees, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Their Impact on Small Business

This article examines the AIDS  epidemic and the Americans  with Disabilities  Act  (ADA) as they impact on small businesses. A recent Supreme Court ruling provides extensive ADA protection for employees with HIV/AIDS. New therapies now allow HIV/AIDS  victims to live longer and many want to work. Because some stereotypes about the disease exist, many small businesses are unaware that the ADA protects these employees and may violate their civil rights. The article examines this ADA protection and provides a sample policy for small businesses

Comparing the Electron Transport Rate of Nico%ana glauca and Encelia californica at Normal and Increased PAR

The purpose of this experiment is to investigate how normal and increased sunlight affects both indigenous and non-native species in Southern California’s chaparral ecosystem. Encelia californica and Nicotiana glauca were chosen as representative native and invasive species respectively. The electron transport rate (ETR) of the two species are expected to be higher at 2400 PAR (photosynthetic active radiation) than at 2000 PAR. The ETR between the two species is also expected to be different. The difference between species is important for understanding the advantages and disadvantages of species dependent on sunlight exposure. The ETR was measured using a Li-Cor 6400 which could also alter the PAR exposure. The data showed a significant increase in ETR for both species at the higher PAR but showed no significant difference between the two species

Impact Of Leadership Styles On Employee Organizational Commitment

This research study examines the relationship between transformational, transactional and passive/avoidant leadership styles and three dimensions of organizational commitment – affective, continuance, and normative in two subsidiaries of one multinational organization. The research findings revealed that transformational leadership has the strongest impact on affective commitment, although transactional leadership also affects affective commitment. Transformational leadership also has a significant positive affect on normative commitment. Transactional leadership has a significant positive affect on continuance commitment and positive/avoidant leadership has a significant negative affect on affective commitment

Annual Rainfall and Seasonality Predict Pan-tropical Patterns of Liana Density and Basal Area

We test the hypotheses proposed by Gentry and Schnitzer that liana density and basal area in tropical forests vary negatively with mean annual precipitation (MAP) and positively with seasonality. Previous studies correlating liana abundance with these climatic variables have produced conflicting results, warranting a new analysis of drivers of liana abundance based on a different dataset. We compiled a pan-tropical dataset containing 28,953 lianas (≥2.5 cm diam.) from studies conducted at 13 Neotropical and 11 Paleotropical dry to wet lowland tropical forests. The ranges in MAP and dry season length (DSL) (number of months with mean rainfall <100 mm) represented by these datasets were 860–7250 mm/yr and 0–7 mo, respectively. Pan-tropically, liana density and basal area decreased significantly with increasing annual rainfall and increased with increasing DSL, supporting the hypotheses of Gentry and Schnitzer. Our results suggest that much of the variation in liana density and basal area in the tropics can be accounted for by the relatively simple metrics of MAP and DSL.Abstract in Spanish is available at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/btpPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78581/1/j.1744-7429.2009.00589.x.pd

Effects of Plant Sex on Range Distributions and Allocation to Reproduction

Despite an abundance of theory, few empirical studies have explored the ecological and evolutionary consequences of sex. We used a comparative phylogenetic approach to examine whether transitions between sexual and asexual reproduction are associated with changes in the size and distribution of species’ geographical ranges, and their investment in reproduction. Here, we reconstructed the phylogeny of the genus Oenothera sections Oenothera and Calylophus (Onagraceae), which contain 35 sexual and 30 functionally asexual species. From each species, we collected data on the geographical distribution and variation in plant traits related to reproduction. Functionally asexual species occurred at higher latitudes, but did not differ in range size, compared with sexual species. Transitions to asexuality were associated with decreased investment in floral structures, including the length of petals, floral tubes and styles. Decreased anther size and increased seed size within asexual species also suggest altered allocation to male and female fitness. The observed range shifts are consistent with superior colonization of environments by asexual species following glaciation, and the observed changes in reproductive allocation support predictions made by models relating to the evolution of selfing. Our results suggest that the evolutionary consequences of asexual reproduction might be less restrictive than previously thought

Biogeographic distributions of neotropical trees reflect their directly measured drought tolerances

High levels of species diversity hamper current understanding of how tropical forests may respond to environmental change. In the tropics, water availability is a leading driver of the diversity and distribution of tree species, suggesting that many tropical taxa may be physiologically incapable of tolerating dry conditions, and that their distributions along moisture gradients can be used to predict their drought tolerance. While this hypothesis has been explored at local and regional scales, large continental-scale tests are lacking. We investigate whether the relationship between drought-induced mortality and distributions holds continentally by relating experimental and observational data of drought-induced mortality across the Neotropics to the large-scale bioclimatic distributions of 115 tree genera. Across the different experiments, genera affiliated to wetter climatic regimes show higher drought-induced mortality than dry-affiliated ones, even after controlling for phylogenetic relationships. This pattern is stronger for adult trees than for saplings or seedlings, suggesting that the environmental filters exerted by drought impact adult tree survival most strongly. Overall, our analysis of experimental, observational, and bioclimatic data across neotropical forests suggests that increasing moisture-stress is indeed likely to drive significant changes in floristic composition