Academic literature on the topic 'Electric Railway Company of the United States'

Stocks and bonds issued by industrial companies listed and traded on the stock exchange belong to industrial stocks. For example: electric power, steel, automobile, food, beverage, wine, textile, pharmaceutical, and other enterprises engaged in product manufacturing stocks, bonds and other securities. In the United States, industrial stocks make up a large proportion of the economy. In the process, investors can make a lot of profits. Despite more than a century of growth in such industries, there is still a lot of potential. Industrial stocks are among the areas with the longest shelf life in the United States and the world. This paper analyses the selected three companies in industrial sector the three aspects of risk, profitability and market ratio to predict basic trend in this area. Three companies are Canadian National Railway Company (CNI), Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), FedEx Corporation (FDX). The results show Canadian National Railway Company is less risky and FedEx Corporation is least profitable. The findings in this paper may benefit the different investors in financial markets on investment decisions.

In this issue of Journal of Disaster Research, we introduce nine papers on societal responses to recent catastrophic disasters with special focus on long-term recovery processes in Japan and the United States. As disaster impacts increase, we also find that recovery times take longer and the processes for recovery become more complicated. On January 17th of 1995, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the Hanshin and Awaji regions of Japan, resulting in the largest disaster in Japan in 50 years. In this disaster which we call the Kobe earthquake hereafter, over 6,000 people were killed and the damage and losses totaled more than 100 billion US dollars. The long-term recovery from the Kobe earthquake disaster took more than ten years to complete. One of the most important responsibilities of disaster researchers has been to scientifically monitor and record the long-term recovery process following this unprecedented disaster and discern the lessons that can be applied to future disasters. The first seven papers in this issue present some of the key lessons our research team learned from the studying the long-term recovery following the Kobe earthquake disaster. We have two additional papers that deal with two recent disasters in the United States – the terrorist attacks on World Trade Center in New York on September 11 of 2001 and the devastation of New Orleans by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and subsequent levee failures. These disasters have raised a number of new research questions about long-term recovery that US researchers are studying because of the unprecedented size and nature of these disasters’ impacts. Mr. Mammen’s paper reviews the long-term recovery processes observed at and around the World Trade Center site over the last six years. Ms. Johnson’s paper provides a detailed account of the protracted reconstruction planning efforts in the city of New Orleans to illustrate a set of sufficient and necessary conditions for successful recovery. All nine papers in this issue share a theoretical framework for long-term recovery processes which we developed based first upon the lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake and later expanded through observations made following other recent disasters in the world. The following sections provide a brief description of each paper as an introduction to this special issue. 1. The Need for Multiple Recovery Goals After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, the long-term recovery process began with the formulation of disaster recovery plans by the City of Kobe – the most severely impacted municipality – and an overarching plan by Hyogo Prefecture which coordinated 20 impacted municipalities; this planning effort took six months. Before the Kobe earthquake, as indicated in Mr. Maki’s paper in this issue, Japanese theories about, and approaches to, recovery focused mainly on physical recovery, particularly: the redevelopment plans for destroyed areas; the location and standards for housing and building reconstruction; and, the repair and rehabilitation of utility systems. But the lingering problems of some of the recent catastrophes in Japan and elsewhere indicate that there are multiple dimensions of recovery that must be considered. We propose that two other key dimensions are economic recovery and life recovery. The goal of economic recovery is the revitalization of the local disaster impacted economy, including both major industries and small businesses. The goal of life recovery is the restoration of the livelihoods of disaster victims. The recovery plans formulated following the 1995 Kobe earthquake, including the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s plans, all stressed these two dimensions in addition to physical recovery. The basic structure of both the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s recovery plans are summarized in Fig. 1. Each plan has three elements that work simultaneously. The first and most basic element of recovery is the restoration of damaged infrastructure. This helps both physical recovery and economic recovery. Once homes and work places are recovered, Life recovery of the impacted people can be achieved as the final goal of recovery. Figure 2 provides a “recovery report card” of the progress made by 2006 – 11 years into Kobe’s recovery. Infrastructure was restored in two years, which was probably the fastest infrastructure restoration ever, after such a major disaster; it astonished the world. Within five years, more than 140,000 housing units were constructed using a variety of financial means and ownership patterns, and exceeding the number of demolished housing units. Governments at all levels – municipal, prefectural, and national – provided affordable public rental apartments. Private developers, both local and national, also built condominiums and apartments. Disaster victims themselves also invested a lot to reconstruct their homes. Eleven major redevelopment projects were undertaken and all were completed in 10 years. In sum, the physical recovery following the 1995 Kobe earthquake was extensive and has been viewed as a major success. In contrast, economic recovery and life recovery are still underway more than 13 years later. Before the Kobe earthquake, Japan’s policy approaches to recovery assumed that economic recovery and life recovery would be achieved by infusing ample amounts of public funding for physical recovery into the disaster area. Even though the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s recovery plans set economic recovery and life recovery as key goals, there was not clear policy guidance to accomplish them. Without a clear articulation of the desired end-state, economic recovery programs for both large and small businesses were ill-timed and ill-matched to the needs of these businesses trying to recover amidst a prolonged slump in the overall Japanese economy that began in 1997. “Life recovery” programs implemented as part of Kobe’s recovery were essentially social welfare programs for low-income and/or senior citizens. 2. Requirements for Successful Physical Recovery Why was the physical recovery following the 1995 Kobe earthquake so successful in terms of infrastructure restoration, the replacement of damaged housing units, and completion of urban redevelopment projects? There are at least three key success factors that can be applied to other disaster recovery efforts: 1) citizen participation in recovery planning efforts, 2) strong local leadership, and 3) the establishment of numerical targets for recovery. Citizen participation As pointed out in the three papers on recovery planning processes by Mr. Maki, Mr. Mammen, and Ms. Johnson, citizen participation is one of the indispensable factors for successful recovery plans. Thousands of citizens participated in planning workshops organized by America Speaks as part of both the World Trade Center and City of New Orleans recovery planning efforts. Although no such workshops were held as part of the City of Kobe’s recovery planning process, citizen participation had been part of the City of Kobe’s general plan update that had occurred shortly before the earthquake. The City of Kobe’s recovery plan is, in large part, an adaptation of the 1995-2005 general plan. On January 13 of 1995, the City of Kobe formally approved its new, 1995-2005 general plan which had been developed over the course of three years with full of citizen participation. City officials, responsible for drafting the City of Kobe’s recovery plan, have later admitted that they were able to prepare the city’s recovery plan in six months because they had the preceding three years of planning for the new general plan with citizen participation. Based on this lesson, Odiya City compiled its recovery plan based on the recommendations obtained from a series of five stakeholder workshops after the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake. <strong>Fig. 1. </strong> Basic structure of recovery plans from the 1995 Kobe earthquake. <strong>Fig. 2. </strong> “Disaster recovery report card” of the progress made by 2006. Strong leadership In the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake, local leadership had a defining role in the recovery process. Kobe’s former Mayor, Mr. Yukitoshi Sasayama, was hired to work in Kobe City government as an urban planner, rebuilding Kobe following World War II. He knew the city intimately. When he saw damage in one area on his way to the City Hall right after the earthquake, he knew what levels of damage to expect in other parts of the city. It was he who called for the two-month moratorium on rebuilding in Kobe city on the day of the earthquake. The moratorium provided time for the city to formulate a vision and policies to guide the various levels of government, private investors, and residents in rebuilding. It was a quite unpopular policy when Mayor Sasayama announced it. Citizens expected the city to be focusing on shelters and mass care, not a ban on reconstruction. Based on his experience in rebuilding Kobe following WWII, he was determined not to allow haphazard reconstruction in the city. It took several years before Kobe citizens appreciated the moratorium. Numerical targets Former Governor Mr. Toshitami Kaihara provided some key numerical targets for recovery which were announced in the prefecture and municipal recovery plans. They were: 1) Hyogo Prefecture would rebuild all the damaged housing units in three years, 2) all the temporary housing would be removed within five years, and 3) physical recovery would be completed in ten years. All of these numerical targets were achieved. Having numerical targets was critical to directing and motivating all the stakeholders including the national government’s investment, and it proved to be the foundation for Japan’s fundamental approach to recovery following the 1995 earthquake. 3. Economic Recovery as the Prime Goal of Disaster Recovery In Japan, it is the responsibility of the national government to supply the financial support to restore damaged infrastructure and public facilities in the impacted area as soon as possible. The long-term recovery following the Kobe earthquake is the first time, in Japan’s modern history, that a major rebuilding effort occurred during a time when there was not also strong national economic growth. In contrast, between 1945 and 1990, Japan enjoyed a high level of national economic growth which helped facilitate the recoveries following WWII and other large fires. In the first year after the Kobe earthquake, Japan’s national government invested more than US$ 80 billion in recovery. These funds went mainly towards the repair and reconstruction of infrastructure and public facilities. Now, looking back, we can also see that these investments also nearly crushed the local economy. Too much money flowed into the local economy over too short a period of time and it also did not have the “trickle-down” effect that might have been intended. To accomplish numerical targets for physical recovery, the national government awarded contracts to large companies from Osaka and Tokyo. But, these large out-of-town contractors also tended to have their own labor and supply chains already intact, and did not use local resources and labor, as might have been expected. Essentially, ten years of housing supply was completed in less than three years, which led to a significant local economic slump. Large amounts of public investment for recovery are not necessarily a panacea for local businesses, and local economic recovery, as shown in the following two examples from the Kobe earthquake. A significant national investment was made to rebuild the Port of Kobe to a higher seismic standard, but both its foreign export and import trade never recovered to pre-disaster levels. While the Kobe Port was out of business, both the Yokohama Port and the Osaka Port increased their business, even though many economists initially predicted that the Kaohsiung Port in Chinese Taipei or the Pusan Port in Korea would capture this business. Business stayed at all of these ports even after the reopening of the Kobe Port. Similarly, the Hanshin Railway was severely damaged and it took half a year to resume its operation, but it never regained its pre-disaster readership. In this case, two other local railway services, the JR and Hankyu lines, maintained their increased readership even after the Hanshin railway resumed operation. As illustrated by these examples, pre-disaster customers who relied on previous economic output could not necessarily afford to wait for local industries to recover and may have had to take their business elsewhere. Our research suggests that the significant recovery investment made by Japan’s national government may have been a disincentive for new economic development in the impacted area. Government may have been the only significant financial risk-taker in the impacted area during the national economic slow-down. But, its focus was on restoring what had been lost rather than promoting new or emerging economic development. Thus, there may have been a missed opportunity to provide incentives or put pressure on major businesses and industries to develop new businesses and attract new customers in return for the public investment. The significant recovery investment by Japan’s national government may have also created an over-reliance of individuals on public spending and government support. As indicated in Ms. Karatani’s paper, individual savings of Kobe’s residents has continued to rise since the earthquake and the number of individuals on social welfare has also decreased below pre-disaster levels. Based on our research on economic recovery from the Kobe earthquake, at least two lessons emerge: 1) Successful economic recovery requires coordination among all three recovery goals – Economic, Physical and Life Recovery, and 2) “Recovery indices” are needed to better chart recovery progress in real-time and help ensure that the recovery investments are being used effectively. Economic recovery as the prime goal of recovery Physical recovery, especially the restoration of infrastructure and public facilities, may be the most direct and socially accepted provision of outside financial assistance into an impacted area. However, lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake suggest that the sheer amount of such assistance may not be effective as it should be. Thus, as shown in Fig. 3, economic recovery should be the top priority goal for recovery among the three goals and serve as a guiding force for physical recovery and life recovery. Physical recovery can be a powerful facilitator of post-disaster economic development by upgrading social infrastructure and public facilities in compliance with economic recovery plans. In this way, it is possible to turn a disaster into an opportunity for future sustainable development. Life recovery may also be achieved with a healthy economic recovery that increases tax revenue in the impacted area. In order to achieve this coordination among all three recovery goals, municipalities in the impacted areas should have access to flexible forms of post-disaster financing. The community development block grant program that has been used after several large disasters in the United States, provide impacted municipalities with a more flexible form of funding and the ability to better determine what to do and when. The participation of key stakeholders is also an indispensable element of success that enables block grant programs to transform local needs into concrete businesses. In sum, an effective economic recovery combines good coordination of national support to restore infrastructure and public facilities and local initiatives that promote community recovery. Developing Recovery Indices Long-term recovery takes time. As Mr. Tatsuki’s paper explains, periodical social survey data indicates that it took ten years before the initial impacts of the Kobe earthquake were no longer affecting the well-being of disaster victims and the recovery was completed. In order to manage this long-term recovery process effectively, it is important to have some indices to visualize the recovery processes. In this issue, three papers by Mr. Takashima, Ms. Karatani, and Mr. Kimura define three different kinds of recovery indices that can be used to continually monitor the progress of the recovery. Mr. Takashima focuses on electric power consumption in the impacted area as an index for impact and recovery. Chronological change in electric power consumption can be obtained from the monthly reports of power company branches. Daily estimates can also be made by tracking changes in city lights using a satellite called DMSP. Changes in city lights can be a very useful recovery measure especially at the early stages since it can be updated daily for anywhere in the world. Ms. Karatani focuses on the chronological patterns of monthly macro-statistics that prefecture and city governments collect as part of their routine monitoring of services and operations. For researchers, it is extremely costly and virtually impossible to launch post-disaster projects that collect recovery data continuously for ten years. It is more practical for researchers to utilize data that is already being collected by local governments or other agencies and use this data to create disaster impact and recovery indices. Ms. Karatani found three basic patterns of disaster impact and recovery in the local government data that she studied: 1) Some activities increased soon after the disaster event and then slumped, such as housing construction; 2) Some activities reduced sharply for a period of time after the disaster and then rebounded to previous levels, such as grocery consumption; and 3) Some activities reduced sharply for a while and never returned to previous levels, such as the Kobe Port and Hanshin Railway. Mr. Kimura focuses on the psychology of disaster victims. He developed a “recovery and reconstruction calendar” that clarifies the process that disaster victims undergo in rebuilding their shattered lives. His work is based on the results of random surveys. Despite differences in disaster size and locality, survey data from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu earthquake indicate that the recovery and reconstruction calendar is highly reliable and stable in clarifying the recovery and reconstruction process. <strong>Fig. 3.</strong> Integrated plan of disaster recovery. 4. Life Recovery as the Ultimate Goal of Disaster Recovery Life recovery starts with the identification of the disaster victims. In Japan, local governments in the impacted area issue a “damage certificate” to disaster victims by household, recording the extent of each victim’s housing damage. After the Kobe earthquake, a total of 500,000 certificates were issued. These certificates, in turn, were used by both public and private organizations to determine victim’s eligibility for individual assistance programs. However, about 30% of those victims who received certificates after the Kobe earthquake were dissatisfied with the results of assessment. This caused long and severe disputes for more than three years. Based on the lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake, Mr. Horie’s paper presents (1) a standardized procedure for building damage assessment and (2) an inspector training system. This system has been adopted as the official building damage assessment system for issuing damage certificates to victims of the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu earthquake, the 2007 Noto-Peninsula earthquake, and the 2007 Niigata-ken Chuetsu Oki earthquake. Personal and family recovery, which we term life recovery, was one of the explicit goals of the recovery plan from the Kobe earthquake, but it was unclear in both recovery theory and practice as to how this would be measured and accomplished. Now, after studying the recovery in Kobe and other regions, Ms. Tamura’s paper proposes that there are seven elements that define the meaning of life recovery for disaster victims. She recently tested this model in a workshop with Kobe disaster victims. The seven elements and victims’ rankings are shown in Fig. 4. Regaining housing and restoring social networks were, by far, the top recovery indicators for victims. Restoration of neighborhood character ranked third. Demographic shifts and redevelopment plans implemented following the Kobe earthquake forced significant neighborhood changes upon many victims. Next in line were: having a sense of being better prepared and reducing their vulnerability to future disasters; regaining their physical and mental health; and restoration of their income, job, and the economy. The provision of government assistance also provided victims with a sense of life recovery. Mr. Tatsuki’s paper summarizes the results of four random-sample surveys of residents within the most severely impacted areas of Hyogo Prefecture. These surveys were conducted biannually since 1999,. Based on the results of survey data from 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2005, it is our conclusion that life recovery took ten years for victims in the area impacted significantly by the Kobe earthquake. Fig. 5 shows that by comparing the two structural equation models of disaster recovery (from 2003 and 2005), damage caused by the Kobe earthquake was no longer a determinant of life recovery in the 2005 model. It was still one of the major determinants in the 2003 model as it was in 1999 and 2001. This is the first time in the history of disaster research that the entire recovery process has been scientifically described. It can be utilized as a resource and provide benchmarks for monitoring the recovery from future disasters. <strong>Fig. 4.</strong> Ethnographical meaning of “life recovery” obtained from the 5th year review of the Kobe earthquake by the City of Kobe. <strong>Fig. 5.</strong> Life recovery models of 2003 and 2005. 6. The Need for an Integrated Recovery Plan The recovery lessons from Kobe and other regions suggest that we need more integrated recovery plans that use physical recovery as a tool for economic recovery, which in turn helps disaster victims. Furthermore, we believe that economic recovery should be the top priority for recovery, and physical recovery should be regarded as a tool for stimulating economic recovery and upgrading social infrastructure (as shown in Fig. 6). With this approach, disaster recovery can help build the foundation for a long-lasting and sustainable community. Figure 6 proposes a more detailed model for a more holistic recovery process. The ultimate goal of any recovery process should be achieving life recovery for all disaster victims. We believe that to get there, both direct and indirect approaches must be taken. Direct approaches include: the provision of funds and goods for victims, for physical and mental health care, and for housing reconstruction. Indirect approaches for life recovery are those which facilitate economic recovery, which also has both direct and indirect approaches. Direct approaches to economic recovery include: subsidies, loans, and tax exemptions. Indirect approaches to economic recovery include, most significantly, the direct projects to restore infrastructure and public buildings. More subtle approaches include: setting new regulations or deregulations, providing technical support, and creating new businesses. A holistic recovery process needs to strategically combine all of these approaches, and there must be collaborative implementation by all the key stakeholders, including local governments, non-profit and non-governmental organizations (NPOs and NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and the private sector. Therefore, community and stakeholder participation in the planning process is essential to achieve buy-in for the vision and desired outcomes of the recovery plan. Securing the required financial resources is also critical to successful implementation. In thinking of stakeholders, it is important to differentiate between supporting entities and operating agencies. Supporting entities are those organizations that supply the necessary funding for recovery. Both Japan’s national government and the federal government in the U.S. are the prime supporting entities in the recovery from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the 2001 World Trade Center recovery. In Taiwan, the Buddhist organization and the national government of Taiwan were major supporting entities in the recovery from the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake. Operating agencies are those organizations that implement various recovery measures. In Japan, local governments in the impacted area are operating agencies, while the national government is a supporting entity. In the United States, community development block grants provide an opportunity for many operating agencies to implement various recovery measures. As Mr. Mammen’ paper describes, many NPOs, NGOs, and/or CBOs in addition to local governments have had major roles in implementing various kinds programs funded by block grants as part of the World Trade Center recovery. No one, single organization can provide effective help for all kinds of disaster victims individually or collectively. The needs of disaster victims may be conflicting with each other because of their diversity. Their divergent needs can be successfully met by the diversity of operating agencies that have responsibility for implementing recovery measures. In a similar context, block grants made to individual households, such as microfinance, has been a vital recovery mechanism for victims in Thailand who suffered from the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami disaster. Both disaster victims and government officers at all levels strongly supported the microfinance so that disaster victims themselves would become operating agencies for recovery. Empowering individuals in sustainable life recovery is indeed the ultimate goal of recovery. <strong>Fig. 6.</strong> A holistic recovery policy model.

The debate about the comparative performance of the British and American economies around the turn of the century has involved most industrial sectors. In the case of the railways, the argument goes back at least to 1887, when a critical analysis of English railway operations compared to those of the United States was published. For British railway companies, the years after 1900 were a particularly difficult time especially in the capital market, and many new investment projects were abandoned, although not solely because of adverse conditions in the capital market. A substantial number of these projects were probably of a marginal nature but the eighteen-year period between 1890 and 1908 also saw the development of a new type of railway – the urban rapid transit system. This was in response to two very different factors – the continuing growth of cities and the application of electric power in a form suitable for railway use. The spread of these systems in Britain paralleled their expansion in the United States.

Social media utilizing the internet is increasingly needed in everyday life, socialization activities, transportation, education, business, and others. One of the most used social media is Instagram. Indonesian Railway Company also uses Instagram to convey information to the public and enhance the company's image. However, conveying messages from the Indonesian Railway Company to the public is often hampered by several problems, one of which is the long response to answering public questions. Because of this phenomenon, this study aims to find out how the @keretaapikita governance process managed by the Indonesian Railway Company is to improve information services and to find out the obstacles in its management. This research uses a qualitative approach based on case studies. The data collection technique of this research is; in-depth interviews, literature studies, book documentation, literature, documents, archives, journals, and the internet. The data-checking technique uses triangulation (source & method). The results of this study found that the governance process of @keretaapikita at the Indonesian Railway Company (applying the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Action) approach by Dr. Edward Deming, a quality expert from the United States.

Industrial stocks are stocks issued by industrial enterprises that produce non-consumer materials. Industries producing non-consumer data generally include extractive industry, manufacturing industry, electric power industry, gas industry and so on. The stocks issued by these industrial enterprises that produce non-consumer materials are called industrial stocks. Industrial stocks have a long history in United States. As early as 1900, industrial stocks became the majority of American stocks. In the same year that the United States overtook Britain as the country with the biggest economy in the world. Even today, more than a hundred years later, industrial stocks still play an important role in the U.S. economy and offer great investment value. In this article, three industrial stocks are selected and analyzed in different investing aspects, which can provide reference for the investors who are interested in industrial stocks. Three companies are the Boeing Company (BA), General Electric Company (GE), Ford Motor Company (F). The results show that BA is most risky and F is most profitable.

This article highlights that the creation of efficient electric appliances using cheap electricity has enabled us to enjoy healthier and more bountiful lives. Since electric power results from the conversion of energy resources in an electric power generating plant, those resources must be adequate and available at low cost at the plant site. Mechanical engineers developed the machinery for coal mining, for coal transportation, and for bulk coal handling. GE and Westinghouse made early contributions starting in electric generator and electric motor development. The US electric utility industry has been mandated by several states to sell all or a large portion of its generating plants. Independent power generators are building new combined-cycle units in selected market regions. Mergers and acquisitions of electric utilities are continuing to increase the size of parent company operations. Mechanical engineers have developed relatively low-cost electric power generation technology through the 20th century, enabling the United States to maintain its world economic leadership and standard of living.

This article presents details of a report on new and future trends in trucking. According to the report, fleet owners may quickly adopt electronic vehicles (EV) for medium-haul routes. In November 2017, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the design for a battery-powered semi that could travel 500 miles on a single charge. According to Musk, the company would begin producing the trucks in 2019. The report highlighted the regional light-duty delivery market in Europe, where fuel costs are higher than in the United States. Designing vehicles and business models around the capabilities of electric powertrains—capabilities that differ from those of diesel trucks—are expected to enable battery-electric trucks to penetrate the market more quickly.

Abstract The concept of autonomously operated ships is beginning to take hold in Europe, Japan and the United States, but primarily in Scandinavia. Some 1,300 kilometers north of Rotterdam, a Norwegian fertilizer company is building what will be the world’s first autonomously operated, zero-emission, all-electric container vessel to haul fertilizer to Norwegian ports for distribution. This article takes a closer look at the vessel’s development.

On April 13, 1982, the Duke Power Company energized an experimental pad-mount distribution transformer in Hickory, North Carolina. The transformer, manufactured by General Electric, provided electric power to a local residence. That same month, the Georgia Power Company installed a similar transformer, made by Westinghouse Electric, atop a utility pole in Athens, Georgia. It supplied electricity for the exterior lights at the Westinghouse Newton Bridge Road plant. These devices shown in Figure 1 were unique among the nearly 40 million distribution transformers in service in the United States because their magnetic cores were made from an Fe–B–Si amorphous-metal alloy. This new material, produced by Allied-Signal (formerly Allied Chemical), was capable of magnetizing more efficiently than any electrical steel. By replacing grain-oriented silicon steel in the transformer cores, the amorphous metal reduced the core losses of the transformers by 75%.Although distribution transformers are relatively efficient devices, often operating at efficiencies as high as 99% at full load, they lose a significant amount of energy in their use. Because of the number of units in service, coupled with the fact that the core material is continuously magnetized and demagnetized at line frequency, transformers account for the largest portion of the energy losses on electric power distribution systems. It is estimated that over 50 × 109 kWh are dissipated annually in the United States in the form of distribution transformer core losses. At today's average electricity generating cost of $0.035/kWh, that energy is worth over $1,500 million.

The Metropolitan Railroad Company Site in Roxbury (Boston), Massachusetts, was first excavated in the late 1970s by staff of the Museum of Afro American History. Researchers recovered nearly 20,000 artifacts related to the site's life as a horsecar street railway station and carriage manufacturer from 1860 to 1891, its subsequent conversion into an electric street railway until around 1920, and finally its modern use as an automobile garage. Using the framework of behavioral archaeology, this project uses GIS-based spatial methods and newly collected documentary evidence to reexamine the site's assemblage of horse accoutrements and carriage manufacturing byproducts. Artifact distribution maps overlaid on detailed historic maps reveal that carriage manufacturing ceased concurrent with street railway electrification, but horse harness craftsmanship continued on to serve in new capacities, highlighting nuances in the narrative of technological change onsite and connecting the life histories of materials to historical actors involved with these transitions.

Construction of the Pacific Northwest-Pacific Southwest Intertie (also known as the Pacific Intertie) began in 1964, following the culmination of a series of interrelated negotiations which included: 1) the planning for the construction and operation of the Pacific Intertie; 2) the passage of federal legislation that put limits on the export of electricity from the regions where it was generated; and 3) the full ratification of the Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada. By 1970, with construction complete, the Pacific Intertie allowed for the movement of more than 4,000,000 kilowatts of power among the electrical systems of British Columbia and eleven Western states, including 243 rural electrical cooperatives, municipal systems, and other public agencies. It had essentially become the backbone of the largest electrical grid in the Western world. In addition to widening the marketing area available to power producers throughout the grid, the Pacific Intertie also integrated the operations of the nation's largest hydropower system (Bonneville Power Administration), the largest privately owned electrical system (Pacific Gas & Electric), and the largest municipal power system (L.A. Department of Water and Power) in the country.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
This study explores the intersection of the developments in the growing advertising, railroad, and automotive sectors of the U.S. economy. It examines the latter two sectors’ advertising to the elite by focusing on how industries that targeted the luxury market used fine art to emphasize and underscore the exceptionalism of that high-end market compared with the mass market. It does so by looking at the transition from using art as a decorative component unrelated to the product to using art specifically designed to advertise a product or experience. In the literature, advertising history has been delineated rather narrowly as the history of advertising to the mass consumer or as the history of advertising a specific type of product. This work broadens the focus in advertising history to show that luxury advertisers, as a sub-category of advertisers, developed particular advertising strategies, which recognized and exploited the relationship between their respective service or product, and a consciously selected audience for their respective advertisements. It shows that high art became a differentiating characteristic of advertising strategies aimed at the social elite market. This work also proposes the need for adding a specific timeline for the development of luxury advertising to the broad, more generally known outline of advertising history.

This study aims to discuss and analyze the financial position and performance of the US Tesla green technology company in the United States. This study uses a case study approach, financial data, and website methodologies to collect and analyze the research data. The case study is Tesla, Inc., which is a US electric vehicle and clean energy company based in Austin, Texas. Tesla is a green technology company that produces and designs electric cars, battery energy storage from home to grid-scale, solar roof tiles and solar panels, and related products and services. Tesla is growing fastly by introducing new green products, and it is now one of the world’s most valuable enterprises. It has a high market capitalization of almost US$1 trillion to become the world’s most valuable automaker. This study concludes that Tesla has changed their strategy to become the most worldwide sales of purely battery electric vehicles, capturing 23% of the market and 16% of the plug-in electric battery in the market for 2020. It has also developed a significant installer of photovoltaic systems through its subsidiary Tesla Energy in the United States. One of the largest global battery energy-storage systems suppliers is Tesla Energy, with 3.99 gigawatt-hours installed in 2021.

Abstract During 1961-63, ICT was involved in an almost constant round of negotiations with virtually every major computer company in America and Britain, as well as Machines Bull in France. The threads of this tapestry of negotiation are very difficult to untangle. For example, ICT and Machines Bull were both independently talking to RCA and General Electric in the United States, at the same time as they were talking to each other; and simultaneously ICT, English Electric, and RCA were considering some tripartite agreement. There were thus at least six separate, but interlocking, sets of negotiations involving just these companies. The course of these negotiations becomes much clearer when viewed in the context of ICT’s objective in seeking liaisons with other companies. ICT’s objective was to strengthen its position in computers in two ways. First, it needed to close the technology gap between its own computers and those available in the United States-this implied a close relationship with an American company. Second, it needed to increase its electronic production facilities-this implied either merging with, or acquiring, another British computer company.

This chapter describes the innovations in green energy generation and electric vehicles development in order to fulfill distribution and production sustainability needs by Grupo Bimbo, the largest bakery products company in the world. Grupo Bimbo, originated in Mexico, has one of the most extensive distribution systems in the entire globe. Although it has presence in 32 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, most of its revenues come from sales in Mexico and the United States. This chapter studies Grupo Bimbo's corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and strategies to increase its distribution efficiency in Mexico, while contributing to alleviate global warming and carbon-reduction constraints by producing its own electric vehicles and power them with in-house wind-generated energy. As a result of these initiatives, carbon footprint reductions of 104,400 tons of CO2e (equivalent to reducing the daily usage of 25,000 cars for one year) were achieved in 2016 alone.

This chapter describes the innovations in green energy generation and electric vehicles development in order to fulfill distribution and production sustainability needs by Grupo Bimbo, the largest bakery products company in the world. Grupo Bimbo, originated in Mexico, has one of the most extensive distribution systems in the entire globe. Although it has presence in 32 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, most of its revenues come from sales in Mexico and the United States. This chapter studies Grupo Bimbo's corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and strategies to increase its distribution efficiency in Mexico, while contributing to alleviate global warming and carbon-reduction constraints by producing its own electric vehicles and power them with in-house wind-generated energy. As a result of these initiatives, carbon footprint reductions of 104,400 tons of CO2e (equivalent to reducing the daily usage of 25,000 cars for one year) were achieved in 2016 alone.

Abstract San Francisco in the 1880s was the ‘queen of the Pacific;• the golden gate through which the hardy Argonauts of 1849 had funneled en route to the goldfields at Sutter’s Fort and the American River. Already the ninth largest city in the United States and recognized as the most important trading center west of Chicago-increasing in population from 34,780 in 1850 to almost 234,000 in 1880-San Francisco was “envied” by most Californians, historian R. Hal Williams observed, but “admired” by only a few. Like most cities of the post Civil War era, it had a plethora of problems that needed to be solved. While city leaders in the 1870s had wisely expanded the school system, doubled the size of law enforcement, created public parks, provided electric fire and police alarms for emergencies, and, most importantly, established a street railway system (including a cable car route), the city government, as established in the 1850s, was resistant to change. And why? It was boss riddled, with corruption and graft seemingly a fixed way of life. Because of its size and wealth, San Francisco dominated state politics for the benefit of its citizens and to the detriment of the rural areas. Hence a system of favors, of “spoils”for the victors, was a natural progression, of which Chris Buckley, “the blind boss of San Fran cisco;’ was the embodiment in the 1880s.

The US Navy has been researching integrated electric propulsion systems for many years. The economic advantages of the integrated electric architecture, where power for propulsion as well as ship service are derived from a common set of generators, are well recognized and such systems are used throughout many sectors of the commercial marine industry today. In addition to the economic advantages, there are military benefits to the ship when an Integrated Power System (IPS) architecture is adopted. Those include increased reliability and survivability, reduced signatures and increased upgradeability. A full scale Land Based Engineering Site (LBES) was constructed at the Advanced Propulsion and Power Generation Test Site (APPGTS) of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division – Ship Systems Engineering Station (NSWCCD-SSES) in Philadelphia, Pa, to demonstrate the system architecture and feasibility of chosen technologies for a warship application. This paper will describe the IPS, test site construction, and test operational experience with a GE LM2500 engine, utilizing a Woodward Governor Company (WGC) MicroNet controller, as the prime mover for the main generator set.

Freight rail carriers have been continuously challenged to reduce costs and comply with increasingly stringent environmental standards, into a continuously competing and environmentally driven industry. In this context, current availability and relative abundance of clean and low cost non conventional gas reserves have aroused a comprehensive reevaluation of rail industry into fuel option, especially where freight rail are strongly diesel based. Countries in which rail sector is required to play an important role in transport matrix, where fuel expenditures currently accounts for a significant share of operational costs, like Australia, Brazil, United States and other continental countries, can be seen as strong candidates to adopt fuel alternatives to diesel fueled freight railways. Moreover, from an environmental perspective, the use of alternative fuels (like natural gas) for locomotive traction may allow rail freight carriers to comply with emission standards into a less technologically complex and costly way. In this context, liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueled freight locomotives are seen as a strong potential near-term driver for natural gas use in rail sector, with its intrinsic cost and environmental benefits and with the potential to revolutionize rail industry much like the transition from steam to diesel experienced into the fifties, as well as the more recent advent of use of alternating current diesel-electric locomotives. LNG rail fueled approach has been focused on both retrofitting existing locomotive diesel engines, as well as on original manufactured engines. Given the lower polluting potential of natural gas heavy engines, when compared to diesel counterparts, LNG locomotives can be used to comply with increasingly restrictive Particulate Matter (PM) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emission standards with less technological complexity (engine design and aftertreatment hardware) and their intrinsic lower associated costs. Prior to commercial operation of LNG locomotives, there are some technical, operational and economic hurdles that need to be addressed, i.e. : i) locomotive engine and fuel tender car technological maturity and reliability improvement; ii) regulation improvement, basically focused on operational safety and interchange operations; iii) current and long term diesel - gas price differential, a decisive driver, and, finally, iv) LNG infrastructure requirements (fueling facilities, locomotives and tender car specifications). This work involved an extensive research into already published works to present an overview of LNG use in freight rail industry into a technical, operational and economical perspective, followed by a critical evaluation of its potential into some relevant freight rail markets, such as United States, Brazil and Australia, as well as some European non electrified rail freight lines.

The AP1000® plant is an 1100-MWe pressurized water reactor (PWR) with passive safety features and extensive plant simplifications that enhance construction, operation, maintenance, safety, and costs. Four AP1000 units are currently under construction on coastal sites of Sanmen and Haiyang, China. Additionally, the United States (US) Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued combined licenses (COLs) to allow Southern Nuclear Operating Company (SNC) & South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G) to construct and operate AP1000 plants at the existing Vogtle & VC Summer sites in Georgia and South Carolina, respectively. Although construction at both US sites is underway, the first four China AP1000 plants will become operational ahead of the U.S. Domestic AP1000 plants. Westinghouse is also actively engaged in deploying the AP1000 plant design in other regions throughout the world such as Europe. For example, the AP1000 plant design was evaluated by the UK Office for Nuclear Regulation as part of the UK Generic Design Assessment and received a statement of interim Design Acceptance in late 2011. This paper reviews the past and on-going AP1000 plant licensing activities and discusses how the significant lessons learned gathered through the AP1000 plant worldwide deployment increase licensing certainty for any new AP1000 project.

Reactor thermal power uprate (Power uprate) of operating light water reactors has long successful experiences in many nuclear power plants in the United States of America and European countries since late 1970’s. And it will be also introduced in Japan soon. This paper mainly describes the outline of the attempt of five-percent reactor thermal power uprate of Tokai No.2 Nuclear Power Station (Tokai-2) operated by the Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC). It will be the leading case in Japan. Tokai-2 is GE type Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) of 1100 MW licensed electric power output and it commenced commercial operation in November 28, 1978. Power uprate is an effective approach for increasing electric power output. And it is recognized as one of the measures for effective and efficient use of existing Japanese operating nuclear power plants. It can contribute to inexpensive and stable electric power supply increase. Especially “Stretch Power Uprate (SPU)” requires only minor equipment modification or component replacement. It is also a countermeasure against global warming. Therefore it is a common theme to be accomplished in the near future for both Japanese electric power companies and government. JAPC started feasibility studies on power uprate in 2003. And in 2007, JAPC established a plan to achieve five-percent power uprate in Tokai-2 and announced this project to the public. This is a leading attempt in the Japanese electric power companies and it is the first case under the current Japanese regulatory requirements. In this plan, JAPC reflected lessons learned from preceding nuclear power plants in the United States and European countries, and tried to make most use of the performance of existing systems and components in Tokai-2 which have been periodically or timely renewed by utilizing more reliable and efficient design. JAPC plans to submit application documents to amend current License for Reactor Establishment Permit shortly. It will contain a complete set of revised safety analysis results based on the uprated reactor thermal power condition. Successful introduction of Tokai-2 power uprate will contribute to the establishment of regulatory process for power uprate in Japan and following attempts by other Japanese electric power companies.

In 1979 the United States Air Force elected under the Engine Model Derivative Program (EMDP) to explore derivative engine concepts by the General Electric Company and the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Division of United Technology Corporation with the objective of improving engine durability and reducing engine ownership cost for future procurements of their first line fighter engines. Concurrently, General Dynamics was invited to develop the necessary airframe/engine interface definition to assure engine compatibility with the airplane requirements. This EMDP development culminated in 1981 with the Alternate Fighter Engine (AFE) competition with General Electric proposing the F110-GE-100 engine and Pratt and Whitney Aircraft proposing the F100-PW-220. Both engines were placed in Full Scale Development and both met the USAF objectives of 4000 TAC cycle life and improved engine cost and warranty for application to the F-15 and F-16 fighters. General Dynamics evolved the concept of the Common Engine Bay which has all aircraft interfaces compatible with either AFE engine and the current Pratt and Whitney Aircraft F100-PW-200 engine. The original F-16 nacelle design, with minor modification of the interfaces and engine mount structure, was adapted to permit full interchangeability for the F100-PW-200, F100-PW-220, or the F110-GE-100 engines. Design requirements were set to permit a common airplane with no break in the production line or aircraft model change and with appropriate simple kits to permit interchangeability of any of the three engines in the field at the organizational level. This manufacturing capability allows the USAF the flexibility to conduct subsequent competitive procurement of the engine.

The electric power industry in the United States will face a number of great challenges in the next two decades, including increasing electricity demand and the aging of the current fleet of power plants. These challenges present a major test for the industry, which must invest between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion by 2030 to meet the increased demand. In addition to these challenges, the potential for climate legislation, controversy over hydraulic fracturing, and post-Fukushima safety concerns have all resulted in significant uncertainty regarding the economics of all major sources of base-load electricity. Currently nuclear power produces 22% of the nation’s electricity, and over 70% of the nation’s low-carbon electricity, even though unfavorable economic conditions have stalled construction of new reactors for over 30 years. The economics are changing, however, as evidenced by the recent construction and operating licenses (COLs) awarded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Southern Company and SCANA Corporation to build two new units each. The successful construction of these units could lead to more favorable financing for future plants. This improved financing, especially if combined with appropriate additional government support, could provide serious momentum for the resurgence of nuclear power in the United States. The most important way in which government support could benefit nuclear power is by increasing the amount of loan guarantees provided to the first wave of new nuclear power plants. This will help encourage additional new builds, which will help reduce the financing risk premium for new nuclear and improve interest rates for future plants. Instead of simply increasing loan guarantees for nuclear energy, a permanent federal financing structure should be established to provide loan guarantees for “clean energy” technologies in general, a category in which nuclear energy should be included. Most importantly, any changes should be made as part of a coherent, long-term energy policy, which would provide utilities with the correct tools to make the necessary investments, and the confidence that will allow them to undertake large-scale projects.

This paper presents the TITRAM (TPC/INER Transient Analysis Method) methodology for the fast transient analysis of Kuosheng Nuclear Power Station (KSNPS) with two units of General Electric (GE) designed BWR/6 (Boiling Water Reactor). The purpose of this work is to provide a technical basis of Taiwan Power Company (TPC)/Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER)’s qualification to perform plant specific licensing safety analyses for the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) basis system fast transients, and related plant operational transient analyses for the Kuosheng plant. The major task of qualifying TITRAM as a licensing method for BWR transient analysis is to adequately quantify its analysis uncertainty. A similar approach as the CSAU (Code Scaling, Applicability, and Uncertainty Evaluation) methodology developed by the USNRC (United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission) was adopted. The CSAU methodology could be characterized as three significant processes, namely code applicability, transient scenario specification and uncertainty evaluation based on Phenomena Identification and Ranking. The applicability of the TITRAM code package primarily using the SIMULATE-3 and RETRAN-3D codes are demonstrated with analyses of integral plant tests such as Peach Bottom Turbine Trip Test and plant startup tests of KSNPS. A Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table (PIRT) with uncertainty values for each identified parameter to cover 95% of possible values are established for the selected KSNPS fast transients. The experience from BWR organizations in the nuclear industry is used as a guide in construction of the PIRT. Sensitivity studies and associated statistical analyses are performed to determine the overall uncertainty of fast transient analysis with TITRAM based on the KSNPS Analysis Nominal Model. Finally, the Licensing Model is established for future licensing applications.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have plug and play technology for your boilers just like on your home computer? Wouldn’t it be great if this technology could give you instant and measurable reductions of 5 percent or more in fuel consumption? Well, in the modern era, this technology has arrived. A small Romanian company has developed a technology that treats combustion air that significantly increases fuel efficiency and lowers emissions on furnaces and boilers by interacting with the fuel at the combustion stage. This technology has the potential to reduce emissions of CO2 by 2–20%, NOx by 5–30%, SOx by 20–60% and emissions that negatively affect human health like acid mists (SO3), dioxins, benzenes, and VOC by as much as 90%. With over a million hours of testing on over 100 boilers and furnaces this economical technology holds great promise. The best part of the technology is that there is limited capital investment or operational costs, and use of the specialty aerosol injection will reduce wear and corrosion in your combustion box regardless of the fuel burned. It reduces costs across the board. Avogadro Environmental Corporation in Easton, PA is working with our partners, Opris Engineering and Kubik in Romania to make this technology available in the United States. The technology has a long proven record of performance and has been fully tested in the U.S. for efficiency improvements and emissions reductions. The technology has received the support of USEPA and state agencies. We are looking for plant operators interested in reducing their emissions and at the same time saving 5–25% in operating and maintenance costs. We just completed two full scale tests of the technology here in the US. The first site was a 90-day test at a 450 MMBtu/hr waste coal-fired electric utility boiler in Pennsylvania. The second site was a 60-day test at a 1,500 MMBtu/hr coal-fired electric utility boiler in the Southeast US.

Abstract Federal rule changes governing natural gas pipelines have driven operators in the United States to establish materials verification programs (MVP) for pipelines that lack reliable records. One component of a successful MVP is the use of nondestructive testing (NDT) to assess pipe properties in situ. Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) augments traditional NDT with quantitative analysis of pipe microstructures. The microstructures are acquired non-destructively by surface replication, and are quantitatively evaluated to assess the ferrite grain size and fraction of pearlite. To support interpretation of the data, PG&E has compiled a database of steel line pipes for which microstructures from both destructive cross-sections (cutouts) and in situ surface replicas have been evaluated, and for which mechanical test data are available. The database is currently comprised of more than fifty pipe samples with manufacturing dates between 1931 and 2017, and a variety of grades and seam types. This work presents a comparative analysis of the different methods used by PG&E to quantify pipe microstructures, and shows that microstructures from surface replicas are generally consistent with those from cutout cross-sections. In addition, semi-quantitative correlations between micro structure and mechanical properties are presented. The data suggest a correlation between grain size and the ductile-brittle Charpy V-notch (CVN) transition temperature, and an inverse correlation between fraction of pearlite and the upper-bound of the CVN upper-shelf energy. In addition, the analysis shows that grain size can provide a lower bound on the manufacturing year (vintage) due to the advent of steelmaking practices that produce refined grain structures. By themselves, the observed trends can provide semi-quantitative bounds for these properties; however, the predictive value of the microstructural assessments may be improved by the development of more sophisticated algorithms that consider additional information, such as composition and hardness.

Abstract Federal rule changes governing natural gas pipeline operation and safety have driven operators in the United States to establish materials verification programs (MVP) for pipelines that lack reliable records. The ongoing MVP at the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) developed an extensive database of laboratory (destructive) tensile testing on over 144 coupons from pipe samples to quantify, in addition to yield strength and ultimate tensile strength, strain hardening exponent (n). A material’s strain hardening exponent quantifies the stress-strain behavior in work hardening and is also used in fracture mechanics-based tools, such as CorLAS™, for assessing flaws in cylindrical bodies, such as pipelines. There is limited strain hardening data for pipeline steels in available literature. This led to the development of a correlation utilizing the ratio of yield stress to ultimate tensile strength (R-ratio) as part of NG-18 research in the 1970s. The original publication for the CorLAS™ model, by Jaske and Beavers in 2002, used this correlation to propose a quadratic relationship between n and R-ratio; however, this relationship was based on a total of four data points each from a different grade of line pipe. As a result, the uncertainty of this empirical relationship is large. A more robust relationship that would be applicable across multiple grades and vintages was sought. Using the PG&E’s materials verification database, this paper presents an improved relationship for strain hardening exponent based on 58 pipe features ranging from the 1930’s to the 2010’s and grades ranging from Grade A to X70. Several case studies highlighting the impact of this change on downstream failure pressure evaluations using CorLAS™ are provided. In some instances, the authors have found that using this new model for the strain hardening exponent in conjunction with CorLAS™ can result in differences of approximately 10% in the calculated failure pressure.