The food marketing cost index : a new measure for analyzing food price changes /

Issued Aug. 1980.

Employment cost index : historical data.

Chiefly tables.

Constant-dollar employment cost index : historical listing.

Chiefly tables.

Regulatory price performance, excess cost indexes and profitability:how effective is price cap regulation in the water industry?

In this study we apply an index number approach to allow for cross sectional comparisons of relative profitability, productivity and price performance of the regulated Water and Sewerage companies (WaSCs) in England and Wales during the years 1991-2008. In order to better analyse the impact of regulation on WaSC performance, we decompose actual economic profits into spatial multilateral Fisher productivity (TFP) index, the inverse of which is demonstrated to be a regulatory excess cost index that measures the deviation of a firm’s actual costs from benchmark costs, and a newly developed regulatory total price performance (TPP) index, which measures the excess of regulated revenues relative to benchmark costs. Increases (decreases) in regulatory price performance are indicative of the loosening (tightening) of price cap regulation. Moreover, we also show that the relationship between actual economic profitability, regulatory excess costs and regulatory price performance indices can be used to categorize regulatory price caps as “weak”, “powerful” or “catch-up promoting”. The results indicated that throughout the entire 1991-2008 period, price caps were never “powerful”, in the sense that they required less productive firms to immediately and fully catch-up to the most productive firm to regain economic profitability. More specifically, during the years 1991-2000 price caps were “weak” as prices were high enough for the firms to achieve economic profits despite their low productivity levels. However, after 2001 prices became “catch up promoting” as they required less productive companies to eliminate at least some excess costs in order to eliminate economic losses. Finally, we emphasize that as our results also clearly demonstrated a much closer alignment between allowed revenues and benchmark costs after 2001, Ofwat’s approach during this period was not only appropriate, but should also be continued in the 2009 price review.

Determination of optimal preventive maintenance strategy for serial production lines

A Split System Approach (SSA) based methodology is presented to assist in making optimal Preventive Maintenance decisions for serial production lines. The methodology treats a production line as a complex series system with multiple PM actions over multiple intervals. Both risk related cost and maintenance related cost are factored into the methodology as either deterministic or random variables. This SSA based methodology enables Asset Management (AM) decisions to be optimized considering a variety of factors including failure probability, failure cost, maintenance cost, PM performance, and the type of PM strategy. The application of this new methodology and an evaluation of the effects of these factors on PM decisions are demonstrated using an example. The results of this work show that the performance of a PM strategy can be measured by its Total Expected Cost Index (TECI). The optimal PM interval is dependent on TECI, PM performance and types of PM strategies. These factors are interrelated. Generally it was found that a trade-off between reliability and the number of PM actions needs to be made so that one can minimize Total Expected Cost (TEC) for asset maintenance.

Optimising preventive maintenance strategy for production Lines

Preventive Maintenance (PM) is often applied to improve the reliability of production lines. A Split System Approach (SSA) based methodology is presented to assist in making optimal PM decisions for serial production lines. The methodology treats a production line as a complex series system with multiple (imperfect) PM actions over multiple intervals. The conditional and overall reliability of the entire production line over these multiple PM intervals are hierarchically calculated using SSA, and provide a foundation for cost analysis. Both risk-related cost and maintenance-related cost are factored into the methodology as either deterministic or random variables. This SSA based methodology enables Asset Management (AM) decisions to be optimised considering a variety of factors including failure probability, failure cost, maintenance cost, PM performance, and the type of PM strategy. The application of this new methodology and an evaluation of the effects of these factors on PM decisions are demonstrated using an example. The results of this work show that the performance of a PM strategy can be measured by its Total Expected Cost Index (TECI). The optimal PM interval is dependent on TECI, PM performance and types of PM strategies. These factors are interrelated. Generally, it was found that a trade-off between reliability and the number of PM actions needs to be made so that one can minimise Total Expected Cost (TEC) for asset maintenance.

乡镇级人口统计数据空间化研究

Population data which collected and saved according to administrative region is a kind of statistical data. As a traditional method of spatial data expression, average distribution in every administrative region brings population data on a low spatial and temporal precision. Now, an accurate population data with high spatial resolution is becoming more and more important in regional planning, environment protection, policy making and rural-urban development. Spatial distribution of population data is becoming more important in GIS study area. In this article, the author reviewed the progress of research on spatial distribution of population. Under the support of GIS, correlative geographical theories and Grid data model, Remote Sensing data, terrain data, traffic data, river data, resident data, and social economic statistic were applied to calculate the spatial distribution of population in Fujian province, which includes following parts: (1) Simulating of boundary at township level. Based on access cost index, land use data, traffic data, river data, DEM, and correlative social economic statistic data, the access cost surface in study area was constructed. Supported by the lowest cost path query and weighted Voronoi diagram, DVT model (Demarcation of Villages and Towns) was established to simulate the boundary at township level in Fujian province. (2) Modeling of population spatial distribution. Based on the knowledge in geography, seven impact factors, such as land use, altitude, slope, residential area, railway, road, and river were chosen as the parameters in this study. Under the support of GIS, the relations of population distribution to these impact factors were analyzed quantificationally, and the coefficients of population density on pixel scale were calculated. Last, the model of population spatial distribution at township level was established through multiplicative fusion of population density coefficients and simulated boundary of towns. (3) Error test and analysis of population spatial distribution base on modeling. The author not only analyzed the numerical character of modeling error, but also its spatial distribution. The reasons of error were discussed.

The Multiple Facets of ETF Investing: A World-Wide Analysis

The global ETF industry provides more complicated investment vehicles than low-cost index trackers. Instead, we find that the real investments of ETFs that do not fully replicate their benchmarks may deviate from their benchmarks to leverage informational advantages (which leads to a surprising stock-selection ability), to benefit from the securities lending market, to support ETF-affiliated banks’ stock prices, and to help affiliated OEFs through cross-trading. These effects are more prevalent in ETFs domiciled in Europe. Market awareness of such additional risk is reflected in ETF outflows. These results have important normative implications for consumer protection and financial stability.

Desenvolvimento de um sistema informatizado para coleta, armazenamento e processamento dos dados referentes à cesta básica do Município de Botucatu -SP

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Sistema informatizado para dispositivos móveis de coleta dos dados referentes à cesta básica do município de Botucatu/SP

The collection of prices for basic goods supply is very important for the population, based on the collection and processing of these data the CLI (Cost Living Index) is calculated among others, helping consumers to shop more rationally and with a clearer view of each product impact of each product on their household budget, not only food, but also cleaning products and personal hygiene ones. Nowadays, the project of collection of prices for basic goods supply is conducted weekly in Botucatu - SP through a spreadsheet. The aim of this work was to develop a software which utilized mobile devices in the data collection and storage phase, concerning the basic goods supply in Botucatu -SP. This was created in order to eliminate the need of taking notes in paper spreadsheets, increasing efficiency and accelerating the data processing. This work utilized the world of mobile technology and development tools, through the platform".NET" - Compact Framework and programming language Visual Basic".NET" was used in the handheld phase, enabling to develop a system using techniques of object oriented programming, with higher speed and reliability in the codes writing. A HP Pavilion dv3 personal computer and an Eten glofish x500+ handheld computer were used. At the end of the software development, collection, data storing and processing in a report, the phase of in loco paper spreadsheets were eliminated and it was possible to verify that the whole process was faster, more consistent, safer, more efficient and the data were more available.

News.

Title from caption.

News.

Description based on: Dec. 1995; title from caption.

News.

Title from caption.

News.

Description based on: Mar. 1988; title from caption.