Academic literature on the topic 'Profit before taxes'

This research aims to learn the effect of the values of the quick ratio, turnover asset, return on aset, and inventory turnover toward net profit before taxes in the food and beverage indusry in Jakarta Stock Exchange (Indonesia) in 2012 - 2013. The approach used is qualitative approach with multiple regression. Based on the analysis described previously, it can be concluded that from the independent variable of turnoverasset, retunt on assets and inventory turnover partially have positive and significant impact on Ebit of Profit. this proves the previous studies that management of assets and inventoy affect earning before tax (EBIT). From the analysis ATR, ROA, and ITO have effects on Ebit or Profit. Som the employers of company are advised to keep ATR, ROA and ITR to remain high in order to get higher profits. Keywords : assets, stocks, earnings before tax

This research aims to learn the effect of the values of the quick ratio, turnover asset, returnon assets, and inventory turnover toward net profit before taxes in the food and beverageindustry in Jakarta Stock Exchange (Indonesia) in 2010-2012. The approach used is qualitativeapproach with multiple regression. Based on the analysis described previously, it can beconcluded that from the independent variable of turnover asset, return on assets and inventoryturnover partially have positive and significant impact on Ebit or profit. This proves the previousstudies that management of assets and inventory affect earnings before tax (EBIT). From theanalysis ATR, ROA and ITO have effects on Ebit or profits. So, the employers of company areadvised to keep ATR, ROA and ITR to remain high in order to get higher profits.Keywords: assets, stocks, earnings before tax

This research aims to study the influence of the values of the quick ratio, asset turnover, return-on - asset and inventory turnover to net income before taxes in the food and beverage industry in the Jakarta Stock Exchange (Indonesia) in 2010-2012. The approach used is a qualitative approach with multiple regression. Based on the analysis described previously, it can take the conclusion of the independent variable asset turnover, return on assets and inventory turnover is partially has positive and significant impact on Ebit or profit. This proves that the previous research studies on assets and inventory management affects earnings before tax (EBIT). From this analysis ATR, ROA and ITO have an influence on Ebit or profit. So that business owners are advised to keep the ATR, ROA, and ITR to always be high to get higher profits.

The Indian automobile sector is the biggest market and emerging by displacing some advanced countries. The Indian automobile sector contributes positively and progressively to the growth and development of the Indian economy. The study is based on secondary data and considers the financial statements available on concerned websites. Ratio analysis, ANOVA (Analysis of Variance), CV (Coefficient of Variation), and rank correlation applied to analyze the data extracted from the financial statements of leading Indian automobile companies. The study reveals that there is a significant difference in the profitability of the Leading Indian automobile companies for the period 2011 to 2020. There is a moderate positive relational relationship between PBDIT(Profit Before Depreciation, Interest, and Tax) ratio and PBIT(Profit Before Interest and Tax) ratio and their variability while PBT ( Profit Before Tax) ratio and PAT ( Profit After Tax) ratio and their variability positively and highly correlated. This reveals that manufacturing expenses and depreciation do not affect profitability while profitability governs the interest and taxes of the leading Indian automobile companies. The study suggests a possible reduction in all direct and indirect costs, optimum cost of capital, or low cost of capital structure can be considered to avoid excessive burden against the profits of the negative performing leading Indian automobile sector companies.

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untukmenguji kemampuan rasio-rasio keuangan yang meliputi gross profit to net sales, current ratio, cost of goods sold inventory, cost of goods sold to net sales,inventory to net sales,net sales to netassets, quick assets to inventory, quick assets to total assets, working capital to total assets, working capital to net sales, profit before taxes to shareholders’ equitydalam memprediksi laba yangdiperoleh perusahaandan arus kas masa depan,dan jugamenguji kemampuan laba dan arus kas bebas untuk investasi atau pendanaan dalam meningkatkan DPR.Penelitian yang dilakukan merupakan penelitian empirik dengan pengujian hipotesis. Populasi penelitian adalah seluruh perusahaan publik yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia (BEI). Sampel penelitian diambil dengan menggunakan purposive sampling dan diperoleh 40 perusahaan manufaktur dan 1 perusahaan jasa yang listed di BEI dengan periode penelitian 2006-2008.Penelitian ini menggunakan analisis jalur (path analysis). Hasil pengujian menunjukkan bahwa hanya rasio CGSNS (cost of goods sold to net sales) danPBTSE(profit before taxes to shareholders’ equity) yang berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap variabel interveninglaba dan arus kas. Sedangkan laba dan arus kas dapat digunakan untuk memprediksi DPR. Laba memiliki pengaruh yang sangat kuat dalam memprediksi DPR dibandingkan dengan arus kas. Hal ini tidak aneh karena perusahaan hanya dapat membagikan dividen semakin besar jika perusahaan mampu menghasilkan laba yang semakin besar. Jika laba yang dihasilkan besarnya tetap, perusahaan tidak bisa membagikan dividen yang makin besar karena hal ini berarti perusahaan akan membagikan modal sendiri. Kesimpulan dari penelitian ini adalah bahwa hanya rasio CGSNS (cost of goods sold to net sales) danPBTSE(profit before taxes to shareholders’ equity) yang berpengaruh positif dan signifikan untuk memprediksi laba dan arus kas masa depan. Sedangkan laba dan arus kas bebas dapat digunakan untuk memprediksi dividen yang dibagikan perusahaan. Kata Kunci : gross profit to net sales, current ratio, cost of goods sold inventory

The goal of the business should reflect its efforts to achieve a certain future state. Classical economic theories emphasize the achievement of profit as a fundamental goal of business. Modern theories consider gaining profit as one of the basic motivating factors. In practice, we distinguish several profit categories that are described in our contribution. The effort of businesses is detection of indicators that help enterprises to generate profit. In our contribution, we focused on the analysis of the profitability of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as on the identification of indicators that significantly influence the rate of profit. In our research we worked with a sample of 9,500 Slovak small and medium-sized enterprises. It was primarily a limited liability company with domestic ownership. We mainly focused on this type of businesses because many authors emphasize the irreplaceable role of small and medium-sized enterprises in countries' economies. Small and medium-sized enterprises play a very important role not only in Slovakia but also in the global economy. The significantly influence the creation of hundreds of jobs, regional development or a high percentage of GDP. Approximately 98% of enterprises in the Slovak Republic fall into the category of small and medium-sized enterprises. For their functioning, it is very important to have the capital that they inevitably need, either for the start of business as such, for development. However, these type of businesses does not always have easy access to financing, especially in the case of bank loan financing. Profit for SMEs is a very important internal source of funding. The aim of our paper is profit analysis and identification of the main profit-taking indicators. The analysis of the profitability was conducted by using methods of descriptive statistics. Based on the studied literature, we selected individual profit categories as basic indicators of profitability as well as selected indicators of profitability that are defined below. Pearson's correlation coefficient and the one-way ANOVA were used to examine the relationship between the selected indicators and achieved profit. Graphs and charts are used to clear the processing of the results of our research. Keywords: ANOVA, cash management, earnings before interest and taxes, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, net operating profit after tax, earnings before interest after taxes, Pearson correlation coefficient.

In response to base erosion and profit shifting by multinational enterprises, states increasingly complement their corporate income taxes with new taxes that seek to secure tax revenue otherwise lost under ordinary corporate income tax. The European Union also seems to favour a new tax on certain digital services as an interim measure, before the concept of a digital permanent establishment as the long-term tax policy goal can be agreed upon. The new taxes can be seen as either explicit treaty overrides or, more interestingly, falling outside the scope of existing tax treaties. This article examines when such new taxes really succeed in avoiding the scope of application of tax treaties and what impact they might have on the tax treaty landscape.

This study aims to show the importance of the economic value added as one of the most modern to measure the financial performance for firms, then to know the effect of the general prices level and earnings before interest and taxes on EVA in the companies listed in (ASE) (2006-2015), the researcher addresses a random sample consisting of (46) Company, and uses regression model, which connects the dependent and independent variables.The results of the study shows that There is a significant impact for the general prices level and the earnings before interest and taxes on the economic value added, and also shows that 22% of the changes in the economic value added are due to general prices level and earnings before interest and taxes, and 78% of the changes are due to other factors.This study also recommends the need to manage of operating expenses because of the positive impact of operating profit on EVA value, and to take inflation into account when calculating the value of EVA, and also searching for other factors that could affect the value of EVA such as sales volume, cost of capital, and the growth in the total assets of the company's financial leverage, etc…

Taxes are one of the state's largest sources of income. For businesses, taxes are a burden that can reduce profits. The government wants high tax revenues, but businesses want low tax revenues. Therefore, this is a tax avoidance act that seeks to minimize the amount of tax a company pays for violating or being legal. This study aims to determine how tax aggressiveness can be seen from aggressive accounting theory. The tax aggressiveness measure uses the company's ETR. This is the income tax expense divided by the profit before income tax. The sample of this survey consists of manufacturers listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) between 2017 and 2019. Targeted sampling was used to select the samples, and 54 companies obtained samples. The analytical method used is multiple regression analysis. The results of this study show that the Inventory Intensity does not affect tax aggressiveness. Capital Intensity, Fixed Assets Intensity, and Firm Size have a significant positive impact on tax aggressiveness.

The purpose of this study was to determine 1) the image of profit beforetax, net interest margin, loan to deposit ratio, asset quality and operating expenses/ operating income state bank listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. 2) analyzethe differences in income before taxes, net interest margin, loan to deposit ratio,asset quality and operating expenses / operating income state bank listed on theIndonesia Stock Exchange. The population in this study are all listed in theGovernment Bank Stock Exchange Bank Indonesia as much as 4. The samplingtechnique used proposive sampling. The analytical method used is descriptive analysis and ANOVA analysisThe results showed that 1) the average profit before tax state bank listed on theIndonesia Stock Exchange the lowest occurred in 2008 and highest in 2011. Theaverage net interest margin is the lowest place in 2011 and highest in 2009. theaverage loan to deposit ratio of the lowest occurred in 2009 and highest in 2011.Average asset quality of the lowest occurred in 2011 and highest in 2009. Averageoperating expenses / operating income of the lowest occurred in 2009 and highestin 2010. 2) There are differences in income before taxes, net interest margin, loanto deposit ratio and the bank's operating expenses/operating incomeintergovernmental listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2008 until 2011. As for thequality of earning assets do not pass the test of homogeneity.

The analysis of the dynamic series of profits is an important component of the company’s financial results analysis. The success of an investment directly depends on the ability to predict the success (or failure) of the selected investment object in the future. From the point of view of investors, prognostic indicators that can be calculated from open financial statements are of particular value. In this study was considered the peculiarities of using the indicator of accelerating profit as one of the possible indicators of the company's investment attractiveness, as well as the specifics of its use in the context of using the Ukrainian companies’ open financial reporting capabilities. Of interest is a comparative analysis of the rate of change in the speed of a number of levels, that is, acceleration. Of course, one isolated, moreover, a very simple indicator cannot be the only basis for making investment decisions. The metric, based on the calculation of the acceleration of the profit, can only be successfully used as an integral part of a balanced scorecard of investment attractiveness.
Аналіз динамічних рядів прибутку є важливим складовим елементом аналізу фінансових результатів підприємства. Успішність інвестування безпосередньо залежить від здатності передбачити успішність (або неуспішність) обраного об'єкта інвестування в майбутньому. З точки зору інвесторів особливу цінність представляють прогностичні індикатори, які можуть бути розраховані по відкритій фінансової звітності. В даному дослідженні розглянуті особливості застосування показника прискорення динаміки прибутку в якості одного з можливих індикаторів інвестиційної привабливості компанії, а також специфіку його застосування в контексті використання можливостей відкритої фінансової звітності українських підприємств. Інтерес представляє порівняльний аналіз прискорення рівнів ряду. Звичайно, один ізольований, до того ж дуже простий індикатор не може бути єдиною підставою до прийняття інвестиційних рішень. Метрика, яка заснована на обчисленні прискорення динаміки прибутку, може успішно використовуватися тільки в якості складового елементу збалансованої системи показників інвестиційної привабливості.

The doctoral thesis is dealing with the questions about synergy business which is understood as clusters, strategic alliances and franchise. It investigates the influence of the selected synergy business on the change of the company value (market value or the objective one). The topic reacts on the contemporary economic trends where fusions and grouping of companies is happening in more levels. One of them is the fusion and acquisition. Second one are various forms of alliances and groupings which allows to companies cooperation, sharing of knowledge, marketing, risks, know-how etc. They allow to the small and middle size companies to increase their competitiveness against the big firms. The doctoral thesis is treating the effect of using one of the form of the synergy business, namely the franchise, on the company value. Because just the increase of the company value should be one of its basic goals. In the framework of the doctoral thesis was made a research with the goal to identify the changes of selected value generators, which determine as a whole the company value. On the basis of the research results there was made in the final part of the work model evaluation of some variants, simulating the value change caused by the change of the selected value generator and there was quantified the synergy effect coming from the use of synergy enterprise. At the end of the work there are summarised the results of the research and of the model determination of the company value, possible benefits for the practice and theory and there are mentioned some possible starting points for the following scientific work in this field.

The financial situation and financial economy could be controlled by a whole range of indicators in the time progress and context so that the evaluation of the situation may reflect the whole economic state of the company and enable to point out causes of the actual situation. If the company shall be economically succesful, the financial planning and analysis has to be a part of the complex of the company´s financial management, because it provides a feedback between the expected effect of managing decisions and present. This diploma work is focused on detection of weak and strong characteristics of the company. All datas used in analysis are taken from the public sources and internal company documentation. The point of my diploma thesis was to present a financial analysis containing my theoretical experience, which I gained during my study at the VUT.Brno.

Governments across the globe are experiencing enormous budget deficits. The governments of South Africa and Australia felt that taxes on mining have not been reflecting a ‘willing buyer-willing seller’ relationship. This in essence means that mining companies in these two countries were not paying an arm’s length value to governments for extracting the resources. In Australia the authorities introduced the Resources Super Profits Tax to be charged at 40% of assessable profits. Mining companies still have to assess how to deal with this new tax when it is enacted on 1 July 2012. However, a change advantageous for the companies is the reduction in the corporate tax rate from 30% to 28% by the 2014/15 tax year. This Resources Super Profits Tax will also be deductible from the calculation of taxable income. South Africa enacted the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Royalty Acton 1 March 2010. Mining companies would now pay royalties based on a charging formula specifically for refined and unrefined minerals. The minimum royalty charging formula is 0.5% of gross sales regardless of whether the mining company incurs losses. This royalty charging formula is capped at 5% for refined minerals and 7% for unrefined minerals. However, any existing arrangement between mining companies and land owners for special royalties payable is not replaced by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Royalty Act. A mining company such as Kumba Resources Limited never paid royalties in 2009, but were paying royalties in 2010 at 5.61% of accounting earnings before interest and taxes and 5.51% in 2011. Despite the additional royalties mining companies still invest in South Africa. The main drive for investment is managing risks and investing in projects that yield positive net present values. Typical risks to be managed are taxation laws, political uncertainty and social issues. These risks should be kept under control as the likelihood of mining companies walking away from investments is high when these risks spiral out of control. AFRIKAANS : Regerings dwarsoor die wêreld ondervind wesenlike begrotingstekorte. Die regerings van Suid Afrika en Australië glo dat die belasting op mynbou-maatskappye nie die ‘gewillige koper-gewillige verkoper’ verhouding weerspieël nie. In beginsel beteken dit dat die mynbou-maatskappye in die twee lande nie armlengte-waarde betaal aan regerings vir die ontginning van minerale nie. In Australië het owerhede die Minerale Super Winste Belasting gepromulgeer wat 40% heffings van berekende winste vereis. Mynbou-maatskappye is steeds in die donker oor hoe om hierdie nuwe belasting te hanteer wanneer dit op 1 Julie 2012 in werking tree.Die verlaging van die korporatiewe belastingkoers van 30% na 28% oor ’n tydperk tot en met die 2014/15 belastingjaaris egter ’n verandering wat voordelig is vir die maatskappye. Hierdie Minerale Super Winste Belasting sal ook van belasbare inkomste van mynbou-maatskappye aftrekbaar wees. Suid Afrika het die Minerale en Petroleum Reserwes Tantieme Wet op 1 Maart 2010 gepromulgeer. Mynbou-maatskappye sal in die vervolg tantieme betaal wat gebaseer word op ’n heffingsformule spesifiek ontwerp vir verwerkte en onverwerkte minerale. Die minimum tantieme heffingsformule is 0.5% van bruto verkope ongeag of die mynbou-maatskappy verliese ly. Hierdie tantieme heffingsformule word wel beperk tot 5% vir verwerkte minerale en 7% vir onverwerkte minerale. Enige huidige ooreenkoms met grondeienaars vir die betaling van spesiale tantieme word ongelukkig nie oorskryf deur die Minerale en Petroleum Reserwes Tantieme Wet nie. ’n Mynbou-maatskappy soos Kumba Resources Beperk het geen tantieme in 2009 betaal nie. In 2010 was Kumba Resources Beperk se tantieme 5.61% van rekeningkundige wins voor rente en belasting en in 2011 was dit 5.51%. Ondanks hierdie addisionele tantieme belê mynbou-maatskappye steeds in Suid Afrika. Die hoof-dryfveer vir beleggings is die bestuur van risiko en belegging in projekte wat positiewe netto huidige waardes lewer. Tipiese risiko’s wat bestuur moet word, is belastingwette, politieke onsekerheid en sosiale kwessies. Hierdie risiko’s moet te alle tye onder beheer gehou word omrede mynbou- maatskappye heel waarskynlik van beleggings kan onttrek indien die risiko’s buite beheer raak. Copyright
Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013.
Taxation
unrestricted

How and why did the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) matter to experimental writers in the early twentieth century? Previous answers to this question have tended to focus on structural analogies between musical works and literary texts, charting the many different ways in which poetry and prose resemble Beethoven’s compositions. This book takes a different approach. It focuses on how early twentieth-century writers—chief among them E. M. Forster, Aldous Huxley, Wyndham Lewis, Dorothy Richardson, Rebecca West, and Virginia Woolf—profited from the representational conventions associated in the nineteenth century and beyond with Beethovenian culture. The emphasis of Moonlighting falls for the most part on how modernist writers made use of Beethovenian legend. It is concerned neither with formal similarities between Beethoven’s music and modernist writing nor with the music of Beethoven per se, but with certain ways of understanding Beethoven’s music which had long before 1900 taken shape as habit, myth, cliché, and fantasy, and with the influence they had on experimental writing up to 1930. Moonlighting suggests that the modernists drew knowingly and creatively on the conventional. It proposes that many of the most experimental works of modernist literature were shaped by a knowing reliance on Beethovenian consensus; in short, that the literary modernists knew Beethovenian legend when they saw it, and that they were eager to profit from it.

Employee share ownership involves employees acquiring shares in their employer so that they become shareholders. It takes a variety of forms, some of which may have greater significance and effects than others. The extent to which employees possess profit sharing, information, and participation rights varies considerably. This variety means that generalizations about employee share ownership have to be made with caution, as becomes evident in this article. The article provides more details of the various types of employee share ownership plans, before providing information on the incidence of employee share ownership. It examines the factors associated with the use of employee share ownership plans by companies (‘determinants’). The article also reviews the extensive literature on the effects of employee share ownership on attitudes, behaviour, and performance.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

The traditional corporate tax regime creates costly distortions via a preference for debt over equity and possibilities to shift profits to low-tax countries. To overcome these problems, fundamental reforms towards a comprehensive business income tax (CBIT) or an allowance for corporate equity (ACE) have been proposed. A pure CBIT is undesirable—while reducing debt bias and profit shifting, it exacerbates investment distortions. However, a pure ACE is undesirable as well. Although the ACE would both remove debt bias and no longer distort firms’ investment decisions, it would strengthen profit shifting. Because the world features multiple distortions that cannot be simultaneously eliminated, tax policy should not aim to fully remove all finance distortions to contain investment distortions and profit shifting. Therefore, the current system should be amended by a stripping rule that restricts deductibility of interest expenses and royalty payments to a certain threshold of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).

The chapter investigates the degree to which stock market prices were influenced by company financial performance during the period March 2007–September 2020, which included both the beginning of the global financial crisis and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Using quarterly financial data retrieved from the first 34 companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange according to their transaction volumes, empirical results show that, in the period between the two crises, stock market metrics including price to earnings, price to sales, price to book value, and price to free cash flow were shaped by financial performance indicators such as gross margin ratio, operating margin ratio, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin, pretax margin, and net profit margin.

Japanese organizations typically remain not just male-dominated but also organized in male ways. An attractive alternative for women is therefore to start up their own organizations, whether for-profit or non-profit. The Japan Women’s Leadership Initiative takes a group of wannabe social entrepreneurs to Boston, Massachusetts every year to give training and mentorship in how to start and grow a social enterprise. Hayashi Chiaki took her career through marketing and journalism before co-founding her own digital design business, Loftwork, with its affiliate Fabcafes. Mitarai Tamako worked for McKinsey and then the government of Bhutan before moving to the disaster-struck region of Tohoku in 2011 to start up a business with local women making very high-priced and high quality sweaters, with a model reminiscent of the Italian fashion firm Brunello Cuccinelli. Nakamura Noriko, a former TV journalist, set up a babysitting and nanny agency, Poppins, for which one of the fastest growing business lines is providing short-notice childcare for companies and government agencies.

This chapter deals with civil and criminal remedies that are available where intellectual property rights are violated. It first considers the civil relief available before a trial takes place, namely: interim injunctions and prevention of imports. It then outlines the civil remedies available at full trial: final injunction, delivery up or destruction, the awarding of damages, the account of profits, and publicity orders. Finally, it examines the various criminal remedies that intellectual property right holders may avail.

In this chapter, Todd Avery takes the sentence ‘Orlando it seemed had a faith of her own’ as a prompt to explore the many expressions of spirituality and religion in the text. He traces through Orlando an unconventional, anti-institutional form of ‘Woolfian worship’ indebted to Walter Pater’s aestheticism and Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory. Engaging multiple intersections between modernism and theology, Avery argues that ‘the spirituality of Orlando emerges from a deep wonder before the mystery, strangeness, and absurdity of life’. Avery’s reading illuminates the revelatory potential of Woolf’s writing.

Although measuring income inequality seems straightforward and uncontroversial, methodological issues greatly affect findings. This chapter shows that changes in real median income between 1979 and 2014 across six studies varied from negative 8 percent to positive 51 percent. Furthermore, the share of growth going to the top ten percent during these years in four studies ranged from 31 percent to 100 percent. The first choice that researchers make is choosing a dataset or linked datasets. This choice affects the income sharing unit, be it households, families, individuals, or tax units. The next choice is the definition of income, with the starting point being cash market income only—earnings, dividends, rents, interest payments, or business profits. This total can be expanded by including government cash benefits, employer benefits, the rental value of home ownership, and government and financial services that people don’t pay for. Even after the income concept is chosen, income can be presented as adjusted for family size and either before or after taxes. Finally, adjusting for inflation to change nominal incomes into inflation-adjusted incomes can be performed in a variety of ways.

This chapter takes a number of priests with a public profile and examines the extent to which they are prophetic voices or complicit functionaries. Choosing the French priest-writer Jean Sulivan (1913-1980) as a comparator, Eamon Maher examines the published work of Joseph Dunn, Vincent Twomey, Mark Patrick Hederman and Brendan Hoban, before concluding that they all share the prophetic tendency of raising uncomfortable and often unpopular issues while remaining within the institution. He further argues that being so closely aligned to the Church makes it difficult, and professionally dangerous, for priests to criticise certain practices within the institution. However, while retaining a huge love of, and devotion to, the main tenets of Catholicism, these men nevertheless feel obliged to point out things that are going wrong, even when expressing such views can often involve them in conflict with their superiors at home and in Rome.

This chapter proposes a Content-aware and Network-aware Management System (CNMS) over a converged user-environment of social networking and mobile multimedia. The proposed CNMS will focus on applying dynamic personalized multi-layer adaptation for the optimization of the Quality of Experience (QoE) level in a requested media service according to the users’ preferences, favourites provided in their social network profile, and prior experiences rated by users themselves. By user’s preference extraction, a service/content classification will be performed according to an estimation of the user’s favourites, which will be used to provide optimized media delivery across the delivery chain. Therefore, the end-user will always receive her/his favourite service, like Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), interactive application/on-line gaming, web browsing, at requested QoE. The system will ensure optimal allocation of network resources and optimal selection of streaming scheme according to different services/content types and user preferences, and therefore enhance the ratio of price-for-value for the specific subscription and achieve an end-to-end, holistic QoE optimisation. Although QoE is perceived as subjective, it is the only measure that counts for customers of a service. Being able to estimate the user preferences in a controlled manner through the end-user’s social networks profiles, helps operators understand what may be wrong with their services and their respective QoE. The proposed multimodal management system is user-centric and applies advanced machine learning techniques in order to extract user preferences from the social network profile of the user and build up a ranking scale of the services/contents. This ranking scale will be translated to adaptation actions per service type at several instances such as before the provision of the service takes place (i.e. Time Zero), during the delivering of the service (i.e. Time T), across all the network layers and delivery-chain nodes, while ensuring throughout the process that the main focus on the QoS-adaptation of the mobile access network is maintained.

A computer-aided methodology that applies the Finite Element Method (FEM) to gear design is presented in this work. The analysis takes into account the real tooth profile created by the involute flank of the tooth and the trochoidal fillet at the bottom of the tooth. The method enables gears with modified addendum and with any number of teeth to be modeled, so it can be used in CAD systems that require accurate models. Finally, the design process uses finite element modeling as an analysis tool to study the behaviour of components or products before they physically exist, thereby eliminating the need to create physical prototypes and providing a clean engineering design process.

Ice rubble forms when flexural, shear or compressive forces cause broken ice to pile up at the interface between ice floes or during contact with a structure. The accumulation of rubble into linear features results in the formation of ridges, which are comprised of many individual blocks that are bonded with varying degrees of strength. Essential to the overall consolidation of a ridge is the bonding process that takes place at the interface between individual blocks. In this paper initial experimental and numerical simulations are presented that show the amount of new ice that will grow when an initially cold piece of freshwater ice is submerged in freshwater at 0° C. Understanding the thermal behavior of an ice block is important as the results can be used to understand the freeze-bonding processes that occur between two ice blocks, and further extended to understand the processes that occur between multiple ice blocks (i.e., pressure ridges and ice rubble). In the experiments presented herein, a cylindrical ice sample with an initial temperature of −20° C was submerged in a tank of water at 0° C. As the ice cylinder is initially colder than the surrounding water, heat is diffused from the water into the ice cylinder causing a new layer of ice to form around the samples. Wireless temperature sensors with onboard data loggers were placed inside the ice cylinder to measure temperature. The radius, length and weight of the sample were measured before and after the submersion to calculate the thickness of the new ice layer. COMSOL Multiphysics was employed to analyze the freezing rate and the radial temperature profile of the sample. An analytical method is also used to calculate the maximum thickness of the new ice layer formed around the sample once the temperature has equilibrated to the surrounding water temperature. Results obtained using the analytical method are then compared with experimental results. Temperature profile data collected at specified locations within the ice have also been compared with the numerical simulations. Good agreement between measured and simulated results was observed.

Gas turbine engines are widely used as the marine main power system. However, they can’t reverse like diesel engine. If the reversal is realized, other ways must be adopted, for example, controllable pitch propeller (CPP) and reversible gearing. Although CPP has widespread use, the actuator installation inside the hub of the propeller lead to the decrease in efficiency, and it takes one minute to switch “full speed ahead” to “full speed astern”. In addition, some devices need to be added for the reversible gearing, and it takes five minutes to switch from “full speed ahead” “to “full speed astern”. Based on the gas turbine engine itself, a reversible gas turbine engine is proposed, which can rotate positively or reversely. Most important of all, reversible gas turbine engine can realize operating states of “full speed ahead”, “full speed astern“ and “stop propeller”. And, it just takes half of one minute to switch “full speed ahead” to “full speed astern”. Since reversible gas turbine engines have compensating advantages, and especially in recent years computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology and turbine gas-dynamics design level develop rapidly, reversible gas turbine engines will be a good direction for ship astern. In this paper, the power turbine of a marine gas turbine engine was redesigned by three dimensional shape modification, and the flow field is analyzed using CFD, in order to redesign into a reverse turbine. The last stage vanes and blades of this power turbine were changed to double-layer structure. That is, the outer one is reversible turbine, while the inner is the ahead one. Note that their rotational directions are opposite. In order to realize switching between rotation ahead and rotation astern, switching devices were designed, which locate in the duct between the low pressure turbine and power turbine. Moreover, In order to reduce the blade windage loss caused by the reversible turbine during working ahead, baffle plates were used before and after the reversible rotor blades. This paper mainly studied how to increase the efficiency of the reversible turbine stage, the torque change under different operating conditions, rotational speed and rotational directions, and flow field under typical operating conditions. A perfect profile is expected to provide for reversible power turbine, and it can decrease the blade windage loss, and increase the efficiency of the whole gas turbine engine. Overall, the efficiency of the newly designed reversible turbine is up to 85.7%, and the output power is more than 10 MW, which can meet requirements of no less than 30% power of rated condition. Most importantly, the shaft is not over torque under all ahead and astern conditions. Detailed results about these are presented and discussed in the paper.

Hydrogen cooled generators need to undergo carbon dioxide (CO2) purging before being placed into service and when taken offline. This process typically takes 4 to 12 hours, and can take as long as 36 hours in extreme cases, to fully and safely purge a generator. Reducing the volume of hydrogen gas in these generators is essential for reducing the risks of explosions. If these purge times could be shortened, improvements in safety, shorter outages, and increased production could be realized. This paper describes plant testing of a CO2 Fast Degas purging system for hydrogen cooled generators. Results from eight test runs at two different plants are presented in tabular and graphical form. Mean reduction from pure hydrogen to less than 4% hydrogen was 39.8 minutes, while maintaining CO2 temperatures above 80°F (27°C). This eliminates the possibility of CO2 freeze up, and reduces the stress on the piping and the detrimental effects on the generator from extreme temperature swings that occur when CO2 is de-pressurized. These rapid purge rates were accomplished while maintaining the generator pressure within a set range. In order to achieve the minimum purge time, it is critical that mixing of the two gases be minimized during the purge operation. By utilizing the slope of the graphs provided, the system was optimized to minimize purge times to reach safe levels. Tests were performed on both purging operations, replacing hydrogen with CO2 and replacing air with CO2. Samples to analyze the generator gas purity were taken from the vent line using multiple thermal conductivity purity instruments to assure accurate results. The system was tested in both automatic and semi-automatic modes of operation. The fast degas system was found to significantly reduce generator purge times, reducing down time, and improve operator efficiency, positively affecting the overall safety profile of the plant.

The solid particle erosion (SPE) of flow passage is a universal problem in modern high-parameter steam turbines. With the continuous improvement of the working parameters of the steam turbine, the problem of SPE is becoming more serious. This problem is caused by the ferric oxide exfoliations carried by steam from the inner wall of the boiler tube into the steam turbine flow passage, causing the stator blades, the rotor blades, and the shroud to be eroded under impingement and scuffing failure. The SPE cannot only destroy the blade profile, increase the roughness of the blade surface, and affect the aerodynamic performance of the blade, but it can also shorten the maintenance cycle, prolong the maintenance downtime, and even increase the cost for steam turbine maintenance thereby reducing the unit efficiency and safety. In order to simulate SPE in the governing stage of a high-parameter steam turbine, this study adopts the Lagrange method and the Finnie erosion model. The motion characteristics of five different kinds of solid particle, including the solid particle trajectory, are thoroughly analyzed. The regulation of the erosion distribution in the radial and axial directions to the stator and rotor blades is studied to present the mechanism of SPE. Simulated results show that before their collision with the blades, the particles of the small diameters flow with the main stream, and their trajectories are close to the steam streamlines. By contrast, the particles of the large diameters are hardly influenced by the external factors, and their trajectories are close to the straight line. The SPE distribution of the stator and rotor blades varies with the particle diameter. The eroded area in the stator blade is mainly located at the leading edge and the pressure surface, particularly the mid-rear part of the pressure surface, whereas no eroded area can be observed in the suction surface. The small particles greatly affect the erosion distribution of the stator blade. The eroded area in the rotor blade is primarily at the mid-rear part of the pressure surface and the suction surface, which is close to the leading edge. The eroded area takes on a typical slop shape, and the erosion position has an obvious upward trend. The proposed research reveals both the motion characteristics of the solid particles and the distribution regulation of the SPE in the steam turbine flow passage. The analysis results provide references for the governing stage of a high-parameter steam turbine to prevent SPE.

Shorter development design schedules and increasingly dense product designs create difficult challenges in predicting structural performance of a mainframe computer’s structure. To meet certain certification benchmarks such as the Telcordia Technologies Generic Requirements GR-63-CORE seismic zone 4 test profile, a physical test is conducted. This test will occur at an external location at the end of design cycle on a fully functional and loaded mainframe system. The ability to accurately predict the structural performance of a mainframe computer early in the design cycle is critical in shortening its development time. This paper discusses an improved method to verify the finite element analysis results predicting the performance of the mainframe computer’s structure long before the physical test is conducted. Sine sweep and random vibration tests were conducted on the frame structure but due to a limitation of the in-house test capability, only a lightly loaded structure can be tested. Evaluating a structure’s modal stiffness is key to achieving good correlation between a finite element (FE) model and the physical system. This is typically achieved by running an implicit modal analysis in a finite element solver and comparing it to the peak frequencies obtained during physical testing using a sine sweep input. However, a linear, implicit analysis has its limitations. Namely, the inability to assess the internal, nonlinear contact between parts. Thus, a linear implicit analysis may be a good approximation for a single body but not accurate when examining an assembly of bodies where the interaction (nonlinear contact) between the bodies is of significance. In the case of a nonlinear assembly of bodies, one cannot effectively correlate between the test and a linear, implicit finite element model. This paper explores a nonlinear, explicit analysis method of evaluating a structure’s modal stiffness by subjecting the finite element model to a vibration waveform and thereafter post processing its resultant acceleration using Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) to derive the peak frequencies. This result, which takes into account the nonlinear internal contact between the various parts of the assembly, is in line with the way physical test values are obtained. This is an improved method of verification for comparing sine sweep test data and finite element analysis results. The final verification of the finite element model will be a successful physical seismic test. The tests involve extensive sequential, uniaxial earthquake testing in both raised floor and non-raised floor environments in all three directions. Time domain acceleration at the top of the frame structure will be recorded and compared to the finite element model. Matching the frequency content of these accelerations will be proof of the accuracy of the finite element model. Comparative analysis of the physical test and the modeling results will be used to refine the mainframe’s structural elements for improved dynamic response in the final physical certification test.

Attention to safety and health are of ever-increasing priority to industrial organizations. Good Safety is demanded by stockholders, employees, and the community while increasing injury costs provide additional motivation for safety and health excellence. Safety has always been a strong corporate value of DuPont and a vital part of its culture. As a result, DuPont has become a benchmark in safety and health performance. Since 1990, DuPont has re-engineered itself to meet global competition and address future vision. In the new re-engineered organizational structures, DuPont has also had to re-engineer its safety management systems. A special Discovery Team was chartered by DuPont senior management to determine the “best practices’ for safety and health being used in DuPont best-performing sites. A summary of the findings is presented, and five of the practices are discussed. Excellence in safety and health management is more important today than ever. Public awareness, federal and state regulations, and enlightened management have resulted in a widespread conviction that all employees have the right to work in an environment that will not adversely affect their safety and health. In DuPont, we believe that excellence in safety and health is necessary to achieve global competitiveness, maintain employee loyalty, and be an accepted member of the communities in which we make, handle, use, and transport products. Safety can also be the “catalyst” to achieving excellence in other important business parameters. The organizational and communication skills developed by management, individuals, and teams in safety can be directly applied to other company initiatives. As we look into the 21st Century, we must also recognize that new organizational structures (flatter with empowered teams) will require new safety management techniques and systems in order to maintain continuous improvement in safety performance. Injury costs, which have risen dramatically in the past twenty years, provide another incentive for safety and health excellence. Shown in the Figure 1, injury costs have increased even after correcting for inflation. Many companies have found these costs to be an “invisible drain” on earnings and profitability. In some organizations, significant initiatives have been launched to better manage the workers’ compensation systems. We have found that the ultimate solution is to prevent injuries and incidents before they occur. A globally-respected company, DuPont is regarded as a well-managed, extremely ethical firm that is the benchmark in industrial safety performance. Like many other companies, DuPont has re-engineered itself and downsized its operations since 1985. Through these changes, we have maintained dedication to our principles and developed new techniques to manage in these organizational environments. As a diversified company, our operations involve chemical process facilities, production line operations, field activities, and sales and distribution of materials. Our customer base is almost entirely industrial and yet we still maintain a high level of consumer awareness and positive perception. The DuPont concern for safety dates back to the early 1800s and the first days of the company. In 1802 E.I. DuPont, a Frenchman, began manufacturing quality grade explosives to fill America’s growing need to build roads, clear fields, increase mining output, and protect its recently won independence. Because explosives production is such a hazardous industry, DuPont recognized and accepted the need for an effective safety effort. The building walls of the first powder mill near Wilmington, Delaware, were built three stones thick on three sides. The back remained open to the Brandywine River to direct any explosive forces away from other buildings and employees. To set the safety example, DuPont also built his home and the homes of his managers next to the powder yard. An effective safety program was a necessity. It represented the first defense against instant corporate liquidation. Safety needs more than a well-designed plant, however. In 1811, work rules were posted in the mill to guide employee work habits. Though not nearly as sophisticated as the safety standards of today, they did introduce an important basic concept — that safety must be a line management responsibility. Later, DuPont introduced an employee health program and hired a company doctor. An early step taken in 1912 was the keeping of safety statistics, approximately 60 years before the federal requirement to do so. We had a visible measure of our safety performance and were determined that we were going to improve it. When the nation entered World War I, the DuPont Company supplied 40 percent of the explosives used by the Allied Forces, more than 1.5 billion pounds. To accomplish this task, over 30,000 new employees were hired and trained to build and operate many plants. Among these facilities was the largest smokeless powder plant the world had ever seen. The new plant was producing granulated powder in a record 116 days after ground breaking. The trends on the safety performance chart reflect the problems that a large new work force can pose until the employees fully accept the company’s safety philosophy. The first arrow reflects the World War I scale-up, and the second arrow represents rapid diversification into new businesses during the 1920s. These instances of significant deterioration in safety performance reinforced DuPont’s commitment to reduce the unsafe acts that were causing 96 percent of our injuries. Only 4 percent of injuries result from unsafe conditions or equipment — the remainder result from the unsafe acts of people. This is an important concept if we are to focus our attention on reducing injuries and incidents within the work environment. World War II brought on a similar set of demands. The story was similar to World War I but the numbers were even more astonishing: one billion dollars in capital expenditures, 54 new plants, 75,000 additional employees, and 4.5 billion pounds of explosives produced — 20 percent of the volume used by the Allied Forces. Yet, the performance during the war years showed no significant deviation from the pre-war years. In 1941, the DuPont Company was 10 times safer than all industry and 9 times safer than the Chemical Industry. Management and the line organization were finally working as they should to control the real causes of injuries. Today, DuPont is about 50 times safer than US industrial safety performance averages. Comparing performance to other industries, it is interesting to note that seemingly “hazard-free” industries seem to have extraordinarily high injury rates. This is because, as DuPont has found out, performance is a function of injury prevention and safety management systems, not hazard exposure. Our success in safety results from a sound safety management philosophy. Each of the 125 DuPont facilities is responsible for its own safety program, progress, and performance. However, management at each of these facilities approaches safety from the same fundamental and sound philosophy. This philosophy can be expressed in eleven straightforward principles. The first principle is that all injuries can be prevented. That statement may seem a bit optimistic. In fact, we believe that this is a realistic goal and not just a theoretical objective. Our safety performance proves that the objective is achievable. We have plants with over 2,000 employees that have operated for over 10 years without a lost time injury. As injuries and incidents are investigated, we can always identify actions that could have prevented that incident. If we manage safety in a proactive — rather than reactive — manner, we will eliminate injuries by reducing the acts and conditions that cause them. The second principle is that management, which includes all levels through first-line supervisors, is responsible and accountable for preventing injuries. Only when senior management exerts sustained and consistent leadership in establishing safety goals, demanding accountability for safety performance and providing the necessary resources, can a safety program be effective in an industrial environment. The third principle states that, while recognizing management responsibility, it takes the combined energy of the entire organization to reach sustained, continuous improvement in safety and health performance. Creating an environment in which employees feel ownership for the safety effort and make significant contributions is an essential task for management, and one that needs deliberate and ongoing attention. The fourth principle is a corollary to the first principle that all injuries are preventable. It holds that all operating exposures that may result in injuries or illnesses can be controlled. No matter what the exposure, an effective safeguard can be provided. It is preferable, of course, to eliminate sources of danger, but when this is not reasonable or practical, supervision must specify measures such as special training, safety devices, and protective clothing. Our fifth safety principle states that safety is a condition of employment. Conscientious assumption of safety responsibility is required from all employees from their first day on the job. Each employee must be convinced that he or she has a responsibility for working safely. The sixth safety principle: Employees must be trained to work safely. We have found that an awareness for safety does not come naturally and that people have to be trained to work safely. With effective training programs to teach, motivate, and sustain safety knowledge, all injuries and illnesses can be eliminated. Our seventh principle holds that management must audit performance on the workplace to assess safety program success. Comprehensive inspections of both facilities and programs not only confirm their effectiveness in achieving the desired performance, but also detect specific problems and help to identify weaknesses in the safety effort. The Company’s eighth principle states that all deficiencies must be corrected promptly. Without prompt action, risk of injuries will increase and, even more important, the credibility of management’s safety efforts will suffer. Our ninth principle is a statement that off-the-job safety is an important part of the overall safety effort. We do not expect nor want employees to “turn safety on” as they come to work and “turn it off” when they go home. The company safety culture truly becomes of the individual employee’s way of thinking. The tenth principle recognizes that it’s good business to prevent injuries. Injuries cost money. However, hidden or indirect costs usually exceed the direct cost. Our last principle is the most important. Safety must be integrated as core business and personal value. There are two reasons for this. First, we’ve learned from almost 200 years of experience that 96 percent of safety incidents are directly caused by the action of people, not by faulty equipment or inadequate safety standards. But conversely, it is our people who provide the solutions to our safety problems. They are the one essential ingredient in the recipe for a safe workplace. Intelligent, trained, and motivated employees are any company’s greatest resource. Our success in safety depends upon the men and women in our plants following procedures, participating actively in training, and identifying and alerting each other and management to potential hazards. By demonstrating a real concern for each employee, management helps establish a mutual respect, and the foundation is laid for a solid safety program. This, of course, is also the foundation for good employee relations. An important lesson learned in DuPont is that the majority of injuries are caused by unsafe acts and at-risk behaviors rather than unsafe equipment or conditions. In fact, in several DuPont studies it was estimated that 96 percent of injuries are caused by unsafe acts. This was particularly revealing when considering safety audits — if audits were only focused on conditions, at best we could only prevent four percent of our injuries. By establishing management systems for safety auditing that focus on people, including audit training, techniques, and plans, all incidents are preventable. Of course, employee contribution and involvement in auditing leads to sustainability through stakeholdership in the system. Management safety audits help to make manage the “behavioral balance.” Every job and task performed at a site can do be done at-risk or safely. The essence of a good safety system ensures that safe behavior is the accepted norm amongst employees, and that it is the expected and respected way of doing things. Shifting employees norms contributes mightily to changing culture. The management safety audit provides a way to quantify these norms. DuPont safety performance has continued to improve since we began keeping records in 1911 until about 1990. In the 1990–1994 time frame, performance deteriorated as shown in the chart that follows: This increase in injuries caused great concern to senior DuPont management as well as employees. It occurred while the corporation was undergoing changes in organization. In order to sustain our technological, competitive, and business leadership positions, DuPont began re-engineering itself beginning in about 1990. New streamlined organizational structures and collaborative work processes eliminated many positions and levels of management and supervision. The total employment of the company was reduced about 25 percent during these four years. In our traditional hierarchical organization structures, every level of supervision and management knew exactly what they were expected to do with safety, and all had important roles. As many of these levels were eliminated, new systems needed to be identified for these new organizations. In early 1995, Edgar S. Woolard, DuPont Chairman, chartered a Corporate Discovery Team to look for processes that will put DuPont on a consistent path toward a goal of zero injuries and occupational illnesses. The cross-functional team used a mode of “discovery through learning” from as many DuPont employees and sites around the world. The Discovery Team fostered the rapid sharing and leveraging of “best practices” and innovative approaches being pursued at DuPont’s plants, field sites, laboratories, and office locations. In short, the team examined the company’s current state, described the future state, identified barriers between the two, and recommended key ways to overcome these barriers. After reporting back to executive management in April, 1995, the Discovery Team was realigned to help organizations implement their recommendations. The Discovery Team reconfirmed key values in DuPont — in short, that all injuries, incidents, and occupational illnesses are preventable and that safety is a source of competitive advantage. As such, the steps taken to improve safety performance also improve overall competitiveness. Senior management made this belief clear: “We will strengthen our business by making safety excellence an integral part of all business activities.” One of the key findings of the Discovery Team was the identification of the best practices used within the company, which are listed below: ▪ Felt Leadership – Management Commitment ▪ Business Integration ▪ Responsibility and Accountability ▪ Individual/Team Involvement and Influence ▪ Contractor Safety ▪ Metrics and Measurements ▪ Communications ▪ Rewards and Recognition ▪ Caring Interdependent Culture; Team-Based Work Process and Systems ▪ Performance Standards and Operating Discipline ▪ Training/Capability ▪ Technology ▪ Safety and Health Resources ▪ Management and Team Audits ▪ Deviation Investigation ▪ Risk Management and Emergency Response ▪ Process Safety ▪ Off-the-Job Safety and Health Education Attention to each of these best practices is essential to achieve sustained improvements in safety and health. The Discovery Implementation in conjunction with DuPont Safety and Environmental Management Services has developed a Safety Self-Assessment around these systems. In this presentation, we will discuss a few of these practices and learn what they mean. Paper published with permission.