Economic analysis of delivering switchgrass to a biorefinery from both the farmers\u27 and processor\u27s perspectives

Switchgrass for bioenergy production will require substantial storage. The first paper evaluates costs of various baling and on-farm storage systems by simulating the final delivered costs to the biorefinery under two representative soil types in East Tennessee and West Tennessee. Influences of the volatilities of switchgrass yield, diesel fuel price and nitrogen fertilizer price on delivered costs are considered. Results show that rectangular bales minimize cost if switchgrass is processed immediately after harvest. However, round bales minimize cost if switchgrass is stored without protection for 200 days before being transported to the biorefinery. The second paper evaluates from the processors\u27 perspective the least cost delivery schedule for switchgrass to a biorefinery considering bale types and storage methods. A mixed integer programming model was used to optimize the year round switchgrass delivery schedule within 50 miles of the biorefinery in East Tennessee from the processors\u27 perspective, while minimizing the annual costs of delivering switchgrass. The delivery is constrained by land availability, switchgrass yields, field days for harvest, and storage dry matter loss. Scenario analyses for different plant sizes, harvesting systems, existence of storage loss and equipment efficiency were done in this study. Results from the base model show that the delivered cost, which accounts for $0.73/gallon of ethanol produced, is almost twice the U.S. Department of Energy\u27s National Renewable Energy Laboratory\u27s goal for feedstock production in 2012

Knowledge transfer and service innovation performance: the case of small and medium consulting enterprises in China

This thesis takes Chinese small and medium management consulting companies as the research object, and puts forward research questions on the relationship between knowledge transfer, absorptive capacity and service innovation performance. Through two rounds of questionnaire surveys, 688 valid data are obtained. The main research conclusions are: (1) Construct a theoretical framework of the relationship between knowledge transfer, absorptive capacity and service innovation performance. The specific hypotheses proposed in this thesis are: the hypothesis of a positive relationship between knowledge transfer and service innovation performance; the hypothesis of a positive relationship between absorptive capacity and service innovation performance; the hypothesis of a positive relationship between knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity; the hypothesis of the mediating role of absorptive capacity between knowledge transfer and service innovation performance. (2) The theoretical hypotheses proposed in this thesis are verified from the statistical analysis of large samples. This thesis mainly uses statistical software such as SPSS24.0 and AMOS24.0 to conduct empirical analysis on the data; it mainly uses descriptive statistical analysis, reliability and validity analysis, correlation analysis, analysis of variance and structural equation models to verify the hypotheses of the relationship between knowledge transfer, absorptive capacity and service innovation performance. It is found that 23 of the 28 research hypotheses in this thesis pass the significance test and the model has a high degree of fit, so the hypotheses are supported by the data. (3) The theoretical hypotheses proposed in this thesis are supported from the case study. This thesis selects three small and medium management consulting companies of different business types as the analysis objects.O objeto de pesquisa desta tese são as pequenas e médias empresas de consultadoria chinesas e estuda as relações entre a transferência de conhecimento, a capacidade de absorção e o desempenho de inovação em serviços. O questionário foi administrado em duas voltas e obtiveram-se 688 dados válidos. As principais conclusões da pesquisa são as seguintes: (1) A construção de uma estrutura teórica das relações entre transferência de conhecimento, capacidade de absorção e desempenho de inovação em serviços. As hipóteses específicas propostas nesta tese foram as seguintes: (i) hipótese 1: existe uma relação positiva entre transferência de conhecimento e o desempenho da inovação em serviços; (ii) hipótese 2: existe uma relação positiva entre capacidade de absorção e desempenho da inovação em serviços, (iii) existe uma relação positiva entre transferência de conhecimento e capacidade de absorção e (iv) capacidade de absorção desempenha um papel mediador entre a transferência de conhecimento e o desempenho da inovação em serviços. (2) As hipóteses teóricas propostas nesta tese foram verificadas a partir da análise estatística de grandes amostras. Esta tese utiliza principalmente software estatístico como o SPSS24.0 e o AMOS24.0 para realizar análises empíricas dos dados; utiliza principalmente análise estatística descritiva, análise de confiabilidade e validade, análise de correlação, análise de variância e modelos de equações estruturais para verificar as hipóteses das relações entre transferência de conhecimento, capacidade de absorção e desempenho da inovação em serviços. Verifica-se que 23 das 28 hipóteses de pesquisa nesta tese passam no teste de significância e o modelo possui um alto grau de ajustamento, isto é, as hipóteses não foram rejeitadas. (3) As hipóteses teóricas propostas nesta tese foram validadas com um estudo de casos múltiplos. Esta tese selecionou três pequenas e médias empresas de consultoria em gestão, com diferentes tipos de negócios, como objeto de análise

How Policy Affects Incentives and Contract Duration in Biomass Production

Policies such as Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) which aim to assist farmers with biomass production may act as a double-edged sword. On one hand, they lure farmers to adopt biomass production in the short term. On the other hand, they can’t be irresponsible for farmers’ abandonment of biomass production in the long run. The paper sharpens this idea in a principal-agent setting and argues that by offering a timely loyalty premium the agents’ take-and-run behavior can be mitigated. Moreover, the model shows that effort and investment in human capital are increasing in loyalty premium when agents decide to continue providing biomass after testing-water contract expires.BCAP, incentive, contract duration, Take-and-Run, Environmental Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization, Production Economics,

Ensuring Readability and Data-fidelity using Head-modifier Templates in Deep Type Description Generation

A type description is a succinct noun compound which helps human and machines to quickly grasp the informative and distinctive information of an entity. Entities in most knowledge graphs (KGs) still lack such descriptions, thus calling for automatic methods to supplement such information. However, existing generative methods either overlook the grammatical structure or make factual mistakes in generated texts. To solve these problems, we propose a head-modifier template-based method to ensure the readability and data fidelity of generated type descriptions. We also propose a new dataset and two automatic metrics for this task. Experiments show that our method improves substantially compared with baselines and achieves state-of-the-art performance on both datasets.Comment: ACL 201

Law and Development

This is a draft of a book to accompany a course on the sociology of law and law and development at Boston University

Cost Analysis of Alternative Harvest, Storage and Transportation Methods for Delivering Switchgrass to a Biorefinery from the Farmers’ perspective

Switchgrass for bioenergy production will require substantial storage. This study evaluated costs of alternative baling and on-farm storage systems. Rectangular bales minimize cost if switchgrass is processed immediately after harvest. However, round bales minimize cost if switchgrass is stored under cover for 200 days before transporting to the biorefineryswitchgrass, baling, storage, transport, costs, farm, biorefinery, Agricultural Finance, Farm Management, Production Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,