Low-cost quasi-parabolic antenna

Antenna design employs flat petal-shaped aluminum sheets and novel rim configuration. New antenna is inexpensive and has only slightly degraded performance. Design advantages are low-cost tooling and fabrication, convenient size and shape for transport and assembly, and simple assembly procedure

Have U.S. Corporations Grown Financially Weak?

The feelingis widespread that the financial strength of U.S. corporations has eroded over the past twenty years. This trend is often blamed on some combination of the tax system, inflation and overly optimistic assessments of business risk.This paper examines recent corporate financing developments from along-run perspective. It is concluded that these developments appear less dangerous when viewed in the context of the twentieth century as a whole than when viewed in the context of the post-World War II years. A second major conclusion is that powerful corrective mechanisms are at work to keep corporate financial positions from becoming too risky. These forces have been particularly noticeable over the past ten years. Third, the effects on business financing of the tax system, inflation and business risk are difficult to trace in the aggregate data, and these effects may be less straightforward than has commonly been thought. Finally, it is argued that the degree of economic instability and the relative level of federal government borrowing will be key determinants of future corporate financing patterns.

An improvement strategy for the defects and rework management process within an SME: An action research

Irish construction reported strong growth towards the end of 2013, after years of industry recession. Following a property led economic collapse which started in 2007 construction output fell by circa eighty percent. Many construction companies went out of business; those remaining are strongly focused on their bottom line and increasing efficiency to ensure survival. Defects and rework, common in construction, are both wasteful and a cost that can be avoided, thus presenting an obvious target for improvement. A regional SME main contractor collaborated on a project to improve the efficiency of their current processes for the identification, management and elimination of defects and rework in their supply chain. An action research strategy was employed on several field projects, to investigate the problems faced by the company in this area and to develop an improvement plan. Action research involves a five stage problem solving cycle (1) problem diagnosing; (2) action planning; (3) action taking; (4) evaluation of results; (5) specification of learning. Action planning elements emerging from the cycle (at stage 2) are presented here. They are very wide ranging and include; process standardisation; sign off procedures; use of ICT as a collaborative platform; freeware information repository; cost modelling; benchmarks for improvement; planning workshops; root cause analysis of defects and subsequent development of learning materials. Preliminary results indicate a sophisticated understanding of the defects and rework process across the supply-chain, but a general lack of forum and opportunity to contribute to improvement. The results indicate a wide diversity of abilities and resources in SMEs, including human, capital and technological, meaning one size fits all solutions to efficiency improvements are difficult to attain. Prescriptions thus need to be both simple to implement and flexible. The results here offer detailed reflective insight into best practice in designing improvement plans of this natur

Consistent Valuation and Cost of Capital Expressions with Corporate and Personal TAxes

This paper examines three valuation methods, each of which should lead to the same value for a given asset. These are the Adjusted Present Value, Adjusted Discount Rate and Flows to Equity methods. To achieve identical valuations, however, the different methods must be implemented with cost of capital expressions that embody a consistent set of assumptions about (1) the tax regime and (2) the time pattern and riskiness of debt tax shields. Valuation and cost of capital expressions that have been proposed in the literature are grouped and contrasted according to these assumptions. It is also shown that the familiar weighted average cost of capital can be consistent with any such set of assumptions, as long as the correct expression is used to estimate the relationship between the levered and unlevered cost of equity.

Subcritical reactivity measurements on fuel storage arrays in the DIMPLE reactor

Imperial Users onl