TESTING THE PECKING ORDER THEORY AND THE SIGNALING THEORY FOR FARM BUSINESSES

Numerous empirical studies in the finance field have tested many theories for firms¡¦ capital structure. Under the assumption of asymmetric information, the pecking order theory proposes the financing order for farm businesses, which implies a negative relationship between their cash flow and leverage. Meanwhile, the signaling theory suggests a farms' financing strategy, meaning high quality farms prefer to facilitate their capital rising by sending diverse signals to potential lenders. Could these capital structure theories be applied for farm businesses? This paper tests the applicability of the pecking order theory and the signaling theory for farm businesses. The results show that farm businesses not only follow the pecking order theory but also the signaling theory. In addition, unlike corporate firms who can choose high leverage as financing signals, farm businesses mainly depend on their large size and good historical operation records to facilitate investment financing.Farm Businesses, Pecking Order Theory, Signaling Theory, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q14,

Signaling Credit Risk in Agriculture: Implications for Capital Structure Analysis

Signaling is an important element in the lender-borrower relationship that influences the cost and availability of debt capital to agricultural borrowers. This paper analyzes the effects of signaling on farm capital structure in conjunction with the pecking order and trade-off theories. The aggregate estimation indicates that signaling does affect agricultural credit relationships through measures of past cash flow and profitability. High-quality borrowers achieve greater credit capacity by providing lenders with valid signals of their financial status, while adjusting toward target debt levels over time and following the pecking order relationship in the short run.farm businesses, pecking order theory, signaling theory, trade-off theory, Agribusiness, Risk and Uncertainty, G11, G32, Q14,

Effects of Low Suction Temperature on the Boil-off Gas compressor

The Boil-off Gas (BOG) compressor is used as a key facility in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, to recycle the excessive boiled gas for re-liquefaction or direct application. The low suction temperature down to -162? brings about big challenges in design of the BOG compressor. In this paper, the three-dimensional finite element model was used to simulate both the static and periodic transient temperature distribution in the cylinder of a BOG compressor, and a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was established to calculate the flow and heat transfer inside the compression chamber and suction/discharge pockets. A test rig was built up to validate the simulated results. The results showed that, the average temperatures in the suction and discharge pockets were about -109? and -60?, respectively, and the temperature of the compression chamber was in-between. The maximum temperature difference between outer and inner surface of the compressor cylinder reached up to 84? during start-up of the compressor, which yielded a thermal strain and stress in the cylinder much larger than those during steady operation of the compressor with only 31? of temperature difference. A variety of pre-cooling temperatures ranging from -20? to -60? were examined, and the results showed pre-cooling down to -20? before start-up was good enough. The amplitude of temperature fluctuation due to the periodic movement of the piston was less than 0.1? in the cylinder wall. The temperature coefficient tended to decrease at lower suction temperature. As the suction temperature decreased from -54.2?to -142.2?, the suction coefficient dropped drastically by 24.4%

Investigation On Premature Failure Of the Self-lubricated Piston Rings in Oil-free Compressor

Abstract: This paper presents the numerical simulation and experimental investigation on impact factors on premature failure of the self-lubricated piston rings in oil-free compressor. In this paper, the finite element method (FEM) was applied to study the non-uniform pressure distributions among the piston rings and the friction process between the self-lubricating piston rings and the cylinder wall, which influence the failure of the self-lubricated piston rings most. In order to verify the mathematic model, a test rig was built to measure the dynamic pressure distributions and temperature field between the piston rings. Both the theoretical and experimental results showed that the first piston ring afford more than 75% of the total pressure difference which was the main reason for the non-uniform wear and thus lead to early invalidation. The friction heat produced between the first piston ring and the cylinder was far more than the rest, which cannot be diffused rapidly through the low conductivity self-lubricating plastics and led to thermal failure of the self-lubricating piston rings. The results provide the theoretical basis to determine the design parameters and the thermal performance of piston rings reasonably

Analysis And Control Of Severe Vibration Of A Screw Compressor Outlet Piping System

The severe vibration of a screw compressor outlet piping system caused the fatigue failure of some thermowells and the unscheduled shut down of the system. The main reasons of the abnormal vibration in the outlet piping system were investigated by developing an acoustic model to simulate the gas pulsation and establishing two finite element models to conduct the mechanical vibration analyses. The acoustic analysis results showed that the pulsation amplitudes of most nodes in the outlet piping system exceeded the allowable values. The results of mechanical vibration analyses indicated that the insufficient stiffness of the outlet piping system and the first-order structure resonance occurred on thermowells were also the key factors inducing vibration. Several methods were put forward to attenuate vibration amplitude of the outlet piping system as well as the thermowells. A new pulsation attenuator was installed and the piping layout was rearranged to reduce pulsation amplitudes and shaking forces of all nodes in the outlet piping system. Several reasonable supports were added to improve the stiffness of the outlet piping system. After reinforcing the thermowells, the first-order natural frequency of the thermowells increased from 207.4Hz to 280.7Hz, away from the excitation frequency of 196.67Hz. The field measurement results showed that vibration amplitude and the vibration velocity decreased significantly after modifications

A Hierarchical Approach for Fast Calculating Minimal Cut Sets of a Microgrid

Minimal cut sets are the basis of reliability analysis using analytical techniques. At the present stage, minimal cut sets are mainly obtained by dealing with minimal path sets, which involves cumbersome steps and slower operational speed. The speed of reliability analysis is limited by that of calculating minimal cut sets. In consideration of the characteristics of microgrid, a hierarchical approach for fast calculating minimal cut sets is proposed in this paper. Firstly, an equivalent principle is proposed to convert topology structure into network node diagram; then grades of nodes are designated based on their original connection and the breadth-first search approach; afterwards, root-leaf matrices and selected matrix are created to specify the direction and order of the search. Next, all possible combinations of minimal cut sets are vertically traversed out by replacing root nodes with leaf nodes to achieve a more rapid access to minimal cut sets. Finally, taking the electrical structure of type A380 more electric aircraft as an example, mainstream methods are compared to show the correctness and advantage of our proposed method

Minimal Cut Sets-Based Reliability Evaluation of the More Electric Aircraft Power System

The More Electric Aircraft (MEA) stands for the direction of aviation development in the new era, and the reliability of power systems on the MEA has attracted widespread attention. Based on the characteristics of MEA power systems, an equivalent method of electrical topology structure is presented in this article, and evaluation method is proposed which shows the reliability of the overall system with the reliability of specific nodes. Firstly, electrical topology structure of a MEA power system is converted into a network node diagram according to the proposed equivalent method. Then, the minimal path sets of specific nodes are obtained by the adjacent matrix algorithm, and the low-order minimal cut sets of disjointed are obtained. After that, the actual failure rate of components is converted to node failure rate, and the reliability of the overall system is evaluated by operational reliability indexes of specific nodes. Finally, taking the MEA A380 as an example, this paper compares and analyzes the reliability of AC loads, DC loads, and key loads to verify the validity and feasibility of the proposed evaluation method. This evaluation system can predict the weak points existing in the MEA power system, as well as providing theoretical support for maintenance schedule

Study on the quantitative assessment of Staphylococcus aureus in the broiler chicken slaughtering line

Objective To analyze the risk and key prevention and control points of Staphylococcus aureus in a large broiler slaughterhouse and to provide guidance for the scientific prevention and control of Staphylococcus aureus contamination in broiler slaughter. Methods Combining the monitoring data and investigation data of Staphylococcus aureus contamination in a large broiler chicken slaughterhouse, a quantitative assessment model was constructed using @ RISK 7 software, and a quantitative assessment was conducted on the four stages of chicken slaughter (depilation, cleaning chamber, pre-cooling and segmentation). Results Our research determined the predictive growth and decline pattern of Staphylococcus aureus in slaughtering process. It showed that the pre-cooling and segmentation and transmission links were the main risk contributor links of Staphylococcus aureus contamination. The critical risk control points of Staphylococcus aureus in broiler slaughtering were the concentration of Staphylococcus aureus in precooled pool water and hand-borne Staphylococcus aureus in workers with the correlation coefficient of 0.62 and 0.50, respectively. Conclusion The identification of key control points and precise control measures of Staphylococcus aureus in broiler slaughtering can effectively guarantee the health and safety of terminal chicken products

Similar Connotation in Chronic Hepatitis B and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Patients with Dampness-Heat Syndrome

The phenomenon that the same syndrome turns up in different diseases appears in the sight of people around the world, which raises the thought for possibility of “Same Treatment for Different Diseases.” Actually, treatment based on ZHENG classification in Traditional Chinese Medicine could bring revelation for the former finding. The dampness-heat syndrome in chronic hepatitis B and nonalcoholic fatty liver is regarded as the breakthrough point. We discussed the molecular mechanism of similar connotation that exists in chronic hepatitis B and nonalcoholic fatty liver by metabonomics to give the modern understanding of dampness-heat syndrome. Both urine and serum metabolic profiling revealed that obvious differences existed between dampness-heat syndrome and non-dampness-heat syndrome but the commonality was proved to appear in chronic hepatitis B and nonalcoholic fatty liver patients with dampness-heat syndrome. Furthermore, disorder of body fluid metabolism, decline in digestive capacity, and imbalance of intestinal flora were found to be the new guiding for treatment, with the hope to provide the basis for Chinese personalized medicine