Value creation in capital waterway projects: Application of a transaction cost and transaction benefit framework for the Miami River and the New Orleans Inner Harbour Navigation Canal

Waterways have many more ties with society than as a medium for the transportation of goods alone. Waterway systems offer society many kinds of socio-economic value. Waterway authorities responsible for management and (re)development need to optimize the public benefits for the investments made. However, due to the many trade-offs in the system these agencies have multiple options for achieving this goal. Because they can invest resources in a great many different ways, they need a way to calculate the efficiency of the decisions they make. Transaction cost theory, and the analysis that goes with it, has emerged as an important means of justifying efficiency decisions in the economic arena. To improve our understanding of the value-creating and coordination problems for waterway authorities, such a framework is applied to this sector. This paper describes the findings for two cases, which reflect two common multi trade-off situations for waterway (re)development. Our first case study focuses on the Miami River, an urban revitalized waterway. The second case describes the Inner Harbour Navigation Canal in New Orleans, a canal and lock in an industrialized zone, in need of an upgrade to keep pace with market developments. The transaction cost framework appears to be useful in exposing a wide variety of value-creating opportunities and the resistances that come with it. These insights can offer infrastructure managers guidance on how to seize these opportunities.

Disclosures Of ABS Transaction Structure Under EU And US Law

This chapter examines the legal concept of transaction structures under EU and US law for asset-backed securities

Correction of transmitter gain and phase errors at the receiver

This paper explores the benefits of compensating transmitter gain and phase inbalances in the receiver for quadrature communication systems. It is assumed that the gain and phase imbalances are introduced at the transmitter only. A simple non-data aided DSP algorithm is used at the reciever to compensate for the imbalances. Computer simulation has been formed to study a coherent QPSK communication system.

Sensory imagery in individuals who are blind and sighted: examining unimodal and multimodal forms

Introduction: Previous research has suggested that visual images are more easily generated, more vivid and more memorable than other sensory modalities. This research examined whether or not imagery is experienced in similar ways by people with and without sight. Specifically, the imabeability of visual, auditory and tactile cue words was compared. The degree to which images were multimodal or unimodal was also examined. Method: Twelve participants totally blind from early infancy and 12 sighted participants generated images in response to 53 sensory and non sensory words, rating imageability and the sensory modality, and describing images. From these 53 items, 4 subgroups of words, which stimulated images that were predominantly visual, tactile, auditory and low-imagery, respectively, were created. Results: T-tests comparing imageability ratings from blind and sighted participants found no differences for auditory and tactile words (both p>.1). Nevertheless, whilst participants without sight found auditory and tactile images equally imageable, sighted participants found images in response to tactile cue words harder to generate than visual cue words (mean difference: -0.51, p=.025). Participants with sight were also more likely to develop multisensory images than were participants without sight (both U≥15.0, N1=12, N2=12, p≤.008). Discussion: For both the blind and sighted, auditory and tactile images were rich and varied and similar language was used. Sighted participants were more likely to generate multimodal images. This was particularly the case for tactile words. Nevertheless, cue words that resulted in multisensory images were not necessarily rated as more imageable. The discussion considers whether or not multimodal imagery represent a method of compensating for impoverished unimodal imagery. Implications for Practitioners: Imagery is important not only as a mnemonic in memory rehabilitation, but also everyday uses for things such as autobiographical memory. This research emphasises both the importance of not only auditory and tactile sensory imagery, but also spatial imagery for people without sight.

A framework for evaluating the European airline costs of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility

In recent years, airlines have been servicing a greater variety, and increasing numbers, of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility (PRMs), particularly associated with ageing, obesity and medical needs. With the quantity of PRMs likely to increase in the future, there will be a growing impact on the airlines' associated actual and opportunity costs, about which there is minimal literature and data. Therefore the aim of this paper is to identify standard functional key factors (FKFs) with which airlines could audit their PRMs costs, and which could be used by other interested bodies, such as governments, when considering relevant aviation policy. These FKFs are related to nine areas, namely PRMs’ transfers; mobility aids; aircraft delays/diversions costs; staff training costs; staff health, safety and welfare; aircraft fixtures and equipment costs; airport costs; transaction costs; and opportunity costs. Further research is needed to obtain the data for these FKFs.