Considerations relating to the laying any additional duty on sugar from the British plantations; wherein is shewn, that such duty will be injurious to the commerce and navigation of this kingdom, ruinous to our sugar colonies, beneficial to those of France, and insufficient for the purposes intended.

Earlier eds. issued under titles: Considerations against laying any new duty upon sugar and Considerations relating to a new duty upon sugar.

(Table 1) Dissolved organic carbon and dissolved sugar of interstitial water of DSDP Holes 96-618, 96-619 and 96-623

Preliminary data on dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved sugars in interstitial water samples collected at Sites 618, 619, and 623 of Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 96 are presented. At Site 618 in Orca Basin, the DOC content of the interstitial water peaks in the hypersaline sulfate reduction zone. The sugar content reaches a maximum and the DOC content begins to decrease at the depth of methane gas generation. Below that depth, the sugar and DOC contents are about constant. At Site 619 in Pigmy Basin, the DOC content increases slightly with depth in the sulfate reduction and the methane fermentation zones. The sugar content is lower in the sulfate reduction zone than in the methane fermentation zone; sugar concentration increases and fluctuates with methane gas percentages within the methane fermentation zone. At Site 623 in the lower fan region of the Mississippi Fan, there is no sulfate reduction zone. The DOC and sugar contents of the interstitial water are almost constant with depth.

International capital and new frontiers of biofuel production in brazilian midwest

v. 18, n.1, jan./mar. 2016.

Business model evolution and firm performance of entrepreneurial companies

This research explores the business model (BM) evolution process of entrepreneurial companies and investigates the relationship between BM evolution and firm performance. Recently, it has been increasingly recognised that the innovative design (and re-design) of BMs is crucial to the performance of entrepreneurial firms, as BM can be associated with superior value creation and competitive advantage. However, there has been limited theoretical and empirical evidence in relation to the micro-mechanisms behind the BM evolution process and the entrepreneurial outcomes of BM evolution. This research seeks to fill this gap by opening up the ‘black box’ of the BM evolution process, exploring the micro-patterns that facilitate the continuous shaping, changing, and renewing of BMs and examining how BM evolutions create and capture value in a dynamic manner. Drawing together the BM and strategic entrepreneurship literature, this research seeks to understand: (1) how and why companies introduce BM innovations and imitations; (2) how BM innovations and imitations interplay as patterns in the BM evolution process; and (3) how BM evolution patterns affect firm performances. This research adopts a longitudinal multiple case study design that focuses on the emerging phenomenon of BM evolution. Twelve entrepreneurial firms in the Chinese Online Group Buying (OGB) industry were selected for their continuous and intensive developments of BMs and their varying success rates in this highly competitive market. Two rounds of data collection were carried out between 2013 and 2014, which generates 31 interviews with founders/co-founders and in total 5,034 pages of data. Following a three-stage research framework, the data analysis begins by mapping the BM evolution process of the twelve companies and classifying the changes in the BMs into innovations and imitations. The second stage focuses down to the BM level, which addresses the BM evolution as a dynamic process by exploring how BM innovations and imitations unfold and interplay over time. The final stage focuses on the firm level, providing theoretical explanations as to the effects of BM evolution patterns on firm performance. This research provides new insights into the nature of BM evolution by elaborating on the missing link between BM dynamics and firm performance. The findings identify four patterns of BM evolution that have different effects on a firm’s short- and long-term performance. This research contributes to the BM literature by presenting what the BM evolution process actually looks like. Moreover, it takes a step towards the process theory of the interplay between BM innovations and imitations, which addresses the role of companies’ actions, and more importantly, reactions to the competitors. Insights are also given into how entrepreneurial companies achieve and sustain value creation and capture by successfully combining the BM evolution patterns. Finally, the findings on BM evolution contributes to the strategic entrepreneurship literature by increasing the understanding of how companies compete in a more dynamic and complex environment. It reveals that, the achievement of superior firm performance is more than a simple question of whether to innovate or imitate, but rather an integration of innovation and imitation strategies over time. This study concludes with a discussion of the findings and their implications for theory and practice.

Oral glutamate intake reduces acute and chronic effects of ethanol in rodents

Purpose: To assess the effects of oral glutamate intake on acute motor effects and chronic intake of ethanol in rodents. Methods: The acute effects of ethanol on motor function were studied in ICR mice by giving 2 or 6 g/kg of ethanol 2 h after distilled water or 2.5 g/kg glutamate per os. Thirty minutes after ethanol treatment, behavioral assays, including rotarod tests and foot print analysis were monitored. In chronic ethanol treatment, male Wistar rats were trained to consume ethanol-sucrose solution during a 2-h period daily, starting with 2 % ethanol/10 % sucrose and gradually increasing to 10 % ethanol/5 % sucrose solution over 56 days. After training session, the drug treatment phase was done for 10 days. The animals were force-fed 50 mg/kg/day topiramate or 2.5 g/kg/day glutamate 2 h before ethanol treatment sessions. Each day, ethanol intake, water intake, food intake and body weight were recorded. Results: Mice that received 2 or 6 g/kg of ethanol orally, showed a significant reduction in time on the rod in the rotarod test and a significant increase in both forelimb and hindlimb stride lengths when compared to control. Oral treatment with 2.5 g/kg of glutamate reversed the acute motor effects of ethanol. In chronic ethanol treatment, the intake of 10 % ethanol/5 % sucrose, accessible for 2 h, was significantly decreased in rats treated with either topiramate or glutamate. Conclusion: These results provide evidence that oral glutamate administration help to reduce the acute motor effects of ethanol in mice and ethanol intake in the chronic ethanol drinking rats.

Comparing the diffusion of online service recovery in small and large organisations

A key concern organisations face is how to incorporate Internet tools into their marketing communications mix. Where and how should companies invest their human, technological and financial resources? This paper explores a subset of this problem, online complaining and electronic customer service. It applies diffusion of innovation as a theoretical framework to investigate organisational implementation of email technology and explain the outcome of annual customer service surveys in 2001, 2002 and 2003. The results add to the small body of research on electronic service recovery by extending diffusion of innovations to email service recovery and underscoring the importance of adoption phases, particularly for SMEs. Larger companies provide more channels for submitting complaints, which represents an early phase of adoption. There was little difference in how large and small companies respond to online complaints, a later phase of adoption.

An exploratory study of innovation effectiveness measurement between Australian and Thai SMEs

The advantages of using a balanced approach to measurement of overall organisational performance are well-known. We examined the effects of a balanced approach in the more specific domain of measuring innovation effectiveness in 144 small to medium sized companies in Australia and Thailand. We found that there were no differences in the metrics used by Australian and Thai companies. In line with our hypotheses, we found that those SMEs that took a balanced approach were more likely to perceive benefits of implemented innovations than those that used only a financial approach to measurement. The perception of benefits then had a subsequent effect on overall attitudes towards innovation. The study shows the importance of measuring both financial and non-financial indicators of innovation effectiveness within SMEs and discusses ways in which these can be conducted with limited resources.

A multilevel study of area socio-economic status and food purchasing behaviour

Objective: This study examined the association between area socioeconomic status (SES) and food purchasing behaviour.----- Setting: Melbourne city, Australia, 2003.----- Participants: Residents of 2,564 households located in 50 small areas.----- Design: Data were collected by mail survey (64.2% response rate). Area SES was indicated by the proportion of households in each area earning less than Aus$400 per week, and individual-level socioeconomic position was measured using education, occupation, and household income. Food purchasing was measured on the basis of compliance with dietary guideline recommendations (for grocery foods) and variety of fruit and vegetable purchase. Multilevel regression examined the association between area SES and food purchase after adjustment for individual-level demographic (age, sex, household composition) and socioeconomic factors.----- Results: Residents of low SES areas were significantly less likely than their counterparts in advantaged areas to purchase grocery foods that were high in fibre and low in fat, salt, and sugar; and they purchased a smaller variety of fruits. There was no evidence of an association between area SES and vegetable variety.----- Conclusions In Melbourne, area SES was associated with some food purchasing behaviours independent of individual-level factors, suggesting that areas in this city may be differentiated on the basis of food availability, accessibility, and affordability, making the purchase of some types of foods more difficult in disadvantaged areas.

Vibration of ship structures and its control

Noise and vibration in complex ship structures are becoming a prominent issue for ship building industry and ship companies due to the constant demand of building faster ships of lighter weight, and the stringent noise and libration regulation of the industry. In order to retain the full benefit of building faster ships without compromising too much on ride comfort and safety, noise and vibration control needs to be implemented. Due to the complexity of ship structures, the coupling of different wave types and multiple wave propagation paths, active control of global hull modes is difficult to implement and very expensive. Traditional passive control such as adding damping materials is only effective in the high frequency range. However, most severe damage to ship structures is caused by large structural deformation of hull structures and high dynamic stress concentration at low frequencies. The most discomfort and fatigue of passengers and the crew onboard ships is also due to the low frequency noise and vibration. Innovative approaches are therefore, required to attenuate the noise and vibration at low frequencies. This book was developed from several specialized research topics on vibration and vibration control of ship structures, mostly from the author's own PhD work at the University of Western Australia. The book aims to provide a better understanding of vibration characteristics of ribbed plate structures, plate/plate coupled structures and the mechanism governing wave propagation and attenuation in periodic and irregular ribbed structures as well as in complex ship structures. The book is designed to be a reference book for ship builders, vibro-acoustic engineers and researchers. The author also hopes that the book can stimulate more exciting future work in this area of research. It is the author's humble desire that the book can be some use for those who purchase it. This book is divided into eight chapters. Each chapter focuses on providing solution to address a particular issue on vibration problems of ship structures. A brief summary of each chapter is given in the general introduction. All chapters are inter-dependent to each other to form an integration volume on the subject of vibration and vibration control of ship structures and alike. I am in debt to many people in completing this work. In particular, I would like to thank Professor J. Pan, Dr N.H. Farag, Dr K. Sum and many others from the University of Western Australia for useful advices and helps during my times at the University and beyond. I would also like to thank my wife, Miaoling Wang, my children, Anita, Sophia and Angela Lin, for their sacrifice and continuing supports to make this work possible. Financial supports from Australian Research Council, Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization and Strategic Marine Pty Ltd at Western Australia for this work is gratefully acknowledged.

Complexity and learning behaviors in product innovation

Successful product innovation and the ability of companies to continuously improve their innovation processes are rapidly becoming essential requirements for competitive advantage and long-term growth in both manufacturing and service industries. It is now recognized that companies must develop innovation capabilities across all stages of the product development, manufacture, and distribution cycle. These Continuous Product Innovation (CPI) capabilities are closely associated with a company’s knowledge management systems and processes. Companies must develop mechanisms to continuously improve these capabilities over time. Using results of an international survey on CPI practices, sets of companies are identified by similarities in specific contingencies related to their complexity of product, process, technological, and customer interface. Differences between the learning behaviors found present in the company groups and in the levers used to develop and support these behaviors are identified and discussed. This paper also discusses appropriate mechanisms for firms with similar complexities, and some approaches they can use to improve their organizational learning and product innovation.

Determinants and consequences of information sharing with key suppliers

The economic environment of today can be characterized as highly dynamic and competitive if not being in a constant flux. Globalization and the Information Technology (IT) revolution are perhaps the main contributing factors to this observation. While companies have to some extent adapted to the current business environment, new pressures such as the recent increase in environmental awareness and its likely effects on regulations are underway. Hence, in the light of market and competitive pressures, companies must constantly evaluate and if necessary update their strategies to sustain and increase the value they create for shareholders (Hunt and Morgan, 1995; Christopher and Towill, 2002). One way to create greater value is to become more efficient in producing and delivering goods and services to customers, which can lead to a strategy known as cost leadership (Porter, 1980). Even though Porter (1996) notes that in the long run cost leadership may not be a sufficient strategy for competitive advantage, operational efficiency is certainly necessary and should therefore be on the agenda of every company. ----- ----- ----- Better workflow management, technology, and resource utilization can lead to greater internal operational efficiency, which explains why, for example, many companies have recently adopted Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems: integrated softwares that streamline business processes. However, as today more and more companies are approaching internal operational excellence, the focus for finding inefficiencies and cost saving opportunities is moving beyond the boundaries of the firm. Today many firms in the supply chain are engaging in collaborative relationships with customers, suppliers, and third parties (services) in an attempt to cut down on costs related to for example, inventory, production, as well as to facilitate synergies. Thus, recent years have witnessed fluidity and blurring regarding organizational boundaries (Coad and Cullen, 2006). ----- ----- ----- The Information Technology (IT) revolution of the late 1990’s has played an important role in bringing organizations closer together. In their efforts to become more efficient, companies first integrated their information systems to speed up transactions such as ordering and billing. Later collaboration on a multidimensional scale including logistics, production, and Research & Development became evident as companies expected substantial benefits from collaboration. However, one could also argue that the recent popularity of the concepts falling under Supply Chain Management (SCM) such as Vendor Managed Inventory, Collaborative Planning, Replenishment, and Forecasting owe to the marketing efforts of software vendors and consultants who provide these solutions. Nevertheless, reports from professional organizations as well as academia indicate that the trend towards interorganizational collaboration is gaining wider ground. For example, the ARC Advisory Group, a research organization on supply chain solutions, estimated that the market for SCM, which includes various kinds of collaboration tools and related services, is going to grow at an annual rate of 7.4% during the years 2004-2008, reaching to $7.4 billion in 2008 (Engineeringtalk 2004).

Aligning the drivers in the value chain - a new cane payment system for Mackay Sugar

For the 2005 season, Mackay Sugar and its growers agreed to implement a new cane payment system. The aim of the new system was to better align the business drivers between the mill and its growers and as a result improve business decision making. The technical basis of the new cane payment system included a fixed sharing of the revenue from sugar cane between the mill and growers. Further, the new system replaced the CCS formula with a new estimate of recoverable sugar (PRS) and introduced NIR for payment analyses. Significant mill and grower consultation processes led to the agreement to implement the new system in 2005 and this consultative approach has been reflected in two seasons of successful operation.

Modelling contractor's and subcontractor's trust : a system dynamics approach

A general mistrust within the contactor and subcontractor companies has identified one of the significant barriers to derive benefits from true downstream supply chain integration. Using the general theory of trust in inter-organizational relations and conducting interviews, this research discusses factors that influence development of trust and cooperation in contractor– subcontractor relationships in construction projects. System dynamics is the simulation method is selected in this theory-building effort, based on qualitative data collected from two projects of a construction company in Thailand. Performance, permeability and system based trust are found to make significant contributions toward parties’ trust level. Three strategic policies such as best value contracting, management of subcontractors as internal team and semi project partnering approach are recommended to stimulate the trust factors as well as cooperative long term relationship.