In 1991, the Federal Communications Commission began regulating the tariffed rates of the nation's largest local exchange carriers under a new regulatory scheme: price-cap regulation. Price caps were intended to "remedy" the ills of traditional rate-of-return regulation. They were to provide incentive for the telephone companies to adopt innovative technology, cost-cutting measures and provide telephone services more efficiently. To test the effectiveness of this incentive, this study examined productivity of the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) under both rate-of-return regulation and price-cap regulation. A total factor productivity model was developed and productivity gains were calculated under both regulatory regimes. The assumption of total factor productivity was then relaxed and value-added productivity and labor productivity measures were also examined. The point estimates of productivity gains indicate that price caps have led to greater productivity gains. Although productivity gains varied greatly across individual RBOCs, use of total RBOC data indicated that average productivity gains improved 1.3 percent under price caps using the TFP model. Similar improvements under price caps were estimated using the value-added (1.1 percent) and labor productivity measurements (1.3 percent). However, because of the variability of the annual estimates, none of the productivity improvements are statistically significant. In conclusion, calculations of RBOC productivity gains suggest that price caps have led to more efficient use of inputs--labor; materials, rents and services; and capital--in the production of telephone company output. Yet, the statistical evidence is not strong enough to unequivocally support the assertion that price cap regulation has led to great productivity gains. / Master of Arts

A study was made of cost and net return of the milking enterprise of selected D.H.I.A. members of Northern Utah. Production cost for market milk ranged from $6.37 to $3.74 per 100 pounds of milk with the weighted average for all enterprises being $4.71 per 100 pounds of milk. Production cost amounted to an average of $538.24 per cow. Total receipts amounted to $4.64 per 100 pounds of milk or $531.18 per cow per year. Net return was calculated by deducting total cost from total receipts and amounted to minus $335 per enterprise or minus $7.23 per cow per year. Manufacturing milk production cost averaged $543.85 per cow per year and average total receipts were $466.97 per cow per year. Net return averaged minus $76.88 per cow per year. A larger number of cows per herd was associated with lower total cost per cow, but a large herd did not lower cost per cow enough to make low producing cows profitable. In the milking enterprise high efficiency in one measure offered no assurance of high net return. The most successful enterprises were those that were better than average in the greatest number of efficiency measures.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Return-to-work (RTW) after an injury or illness is influenced by physical, psychological and social factors. Therefore, a need exists to develop a contextualized multi-perspective and objective measure for the assessment of return-to-work among stroke survivors. This current study comprised three phases, with each phase intended to address various objectives in the process of developing and validating a psychometrically sound measure, to assess return-to-work in stroke survivors. In the first phase, qualitative data collection methods were employed with various stakeholders and key informants, to finalise the conceptualisation, scale construction, and domain identification of the intended instrument. In-depth interviews were conducted with stroke survivors, their caregivers, employers and rehabilitation professionals. The data generated were analysed using the Atlasti.version 7. The results were used to construct the instrument.

Since 2000, the Chinese securities market has introduced private placement refinancing programs from foreign markets. Private placement has gradually emerged as an important refinancing method for domestic listed companies in China. However, any emerging financing means has some drawbacks. In the case of the newly introduced private placements, its manifestation in the Chinese market is the significant fluctuations of stock prices before and after the expiration dates of the lockup periods for stocks issued through private placement and announcements of private placement plans (disclosure plans, receiving approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, etc.) and even significant declines, resulting in most investors suffering unexpected losses. Scholars abroad have conducted several systematic and extensive studies on private placement. However, owing to the short history of private placement practice in China and its unique features, research on this subject is limited. With its gradual maturity, the private placement practice has gradually emerged as important means of financing consideration for listed companies in China. Therefore, in-depth research on the effects of private placements becomes essential.From 2013 to 2016, the domestic private placement market was wisely popular. By the end of 2016, the number of private placement projects, the amount of investment, and number of unlocked stocks had reached the peak. The release of large amounts of money significantly impacted the market. Investors observed the impact of the unlocked stocks on excess returns. Moreover, the company’s announcement before and after the lock-in period expiration has a psychological effect on investors, thus affecting their investment behaviors. Therefore, this empirical study focuses on the two types of impacts: excess returns and announcement effects. This study selected the data of unlocking through private placement of A shares in 2013–2016 as the sample and adopted statistical methods to analyze changes in excess return over the Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index of 10 days before and after the lock-in period expiration date of private placements. It is found that the negative impact of unlocking on the stock price is mainly reflected before unlocking, especially in the 5 trading days before unlocking. The negative impact is not significant after unlocking. Then, by grouping comparison, it is shown that for stocks with different market capitalizations, company ownership structures, and percentages of unlocked stocks over total shares outstanding, there are significant differences in the cumulative excess returns before and after the lock-in period expiration dates. For further verification, this study applies multiple regressions on the influencing factors of the cumulative excess return of stocks before, during, and after unlocking, indicating that the level of market capitalization of the stock, company ownership structure, and the percentage of unlocked stock indeed exert a negative impact. Therefore, it is confirmed that investors can formulate the best trading strategy before and after unlocking, based on factors such as market capitalization, company ownership structure, and percentages of unlocked stock. Finally, a case study of Huangshan Tourism is carried out to further support the conclusion of the empirical analysis. / Business Administration/Finance

College student consumers are an increasingly important segment for marketers and scholars, particularly with the advent of online shopping. This research aims at exploring the effect of college students' decision-making styles on online purchase and return behavior. An online questionnaire survey was conducted on 1100 college students at the University of Central Florida to understand how respondents' return behavior changed with various scenarios and demographic factors. Analysis shows that scenarios involving late arrivals are the highest drivers of returns, while guilt and post- purchase regrets drove far fewer returns. Statistically significant differences in return behavior were found between demographic groups. Notably, this research identified the conditions under which these patterns in return behavior hold true, uncovering clusters of respondents who behave in characteristically similar or different ways. By understanding the factors that drive college students to return online purchases, companies can more efficiently and profitably serve this growing segment of consumers.

Our attentional system has the remarkable ability to allow familiar contexts to guide attentional orienting, while still retaining the ability to orient rapidly to novelty in our environment. Many cognitive paradigms have been used to investigate the particular process that is responsible for orienting attention to novel events, but each paradigm has produced a unique set of boundary conditions. One such paradigm has studied an effect labelled Inhibition of Return (IOR), which has been argued to tap into an attentional mechanism that rapidly orients attention to novelty, but only in the spatial domain. The IOR effect was initially taken as evidence of a fundamental difference between spatial attentional orienting and non-spatial attentional orienting. However, there were a small number of early studies that questioned the view that the IOR effect can only be observed in the spatial domain. In this dissertation, I built upon the evidence for non-spatial IOR by uncovering the effect using a Target-Target (TT) procedure. Although a number of prior studies had failed to observe non-spatial IOR using a TT procedure, I was able to uncover non-spatial IOR effects using a TT procedure by introducing an intervening event. The IOR-like effect that was uncovered using this procedure was labelled the intervening event effect. I introduced a dual process framework to explain the intervening event effect. According to the dual process framework, intervening events between consecutive targets can disrupt an episodic integration process, allowing the influence of a separate opposing process to be measured more directly. Using the dual process framework, I studied the level of processing of the intervening event that was necessary to disrupt episodic integration, as well as the context-sensitivity of the episodic integration process. Lastly, I investigated the role of subjective expectancy in the studies used to measure non-spatial IOR in this thesis. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No description available.

This investigation examines the bottle packaging conveyor system and its impact on the overall efficiency at a bottle packaging plant in Anderson, South Carolina. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the existing opportunity to reduce bottle unit cost, increase productivity, decrease the risk of work related injuries, and improve line reliability along with employee moral with the conveying system alone. Data was gathered for this study in three ways: One, bottle packaging line lead operators were required to document the start and stop times of the conveyor system on their respective lines for six weeks. Two, a conveyor machine operator was required to document the start and stops of the conveyor system itself along with the cause for the same six weeks. Three, a packaging conveyor system project form was randomly submitted to 51 employees, soliciting their opinions and suggestions for the conveyor system. Conclusions of the study show opportunities for improvement and an overwhelming disapproval (88%) of the current system. Three improvement proposals were determined based on all the data collected.

Collection rates and recycling rates of plastic packaging are considerably lower than for other packaging materials in Sweden. In the context of a circular economy, higher plastic packaging recycling rates could contribute to increased resource efficiency and lowered greenhouse gas emissions. A deposit-returnsystem (DRS) for plastic packaging could be an appropriate economic policy instrument to increase recycling rates. This thesis investigates if and how the scope of the DRS in Sweden could be extended to post-consumer plastic packaging. Potential challenges for an extended DRS are identified through semi-structured qualitative research interviews and a literature review. Solutions to overcome the challenges are identified with lessons from earlier DRSs and are complemented with other possible solutions. The results show that the DRS scope could potentially be extended to small hollow bodies. This product group could be implemented gradually in existing infrastructure, is easy to grasp for consumers and its share of the plastic packaging waste is sufficiently high. The focus should be on non-food packaging to avoid hygienic issues. Higher consumer awareness concerning plastic issuesand policies, which incentivize plastic packaging recycling, were identified as important drivers for an extended DRS. / Insamlings- och återvinningsgraden av plastförpackningar är betydligt lägre i Sverige än för andra förpackningsmaterial. Genom att öka återvinningen av plastförpackningar kan högre resurseffektivitet och lägre utsläpp av växthusgaser uppnås. Ett pant-system för plastförpackningar kan således vara ett lämpligt styrmedel för att öka mängden återvunnet material. Detta examensarbete undersöker möjligheterna för ett utökat pantsystem i Sverige där plastförpackningar är inkluderade. Potentiella utmaningar för ett utökat system identifierades genom semi-strukturerade kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer och tillhörande litteraturstudie. Inspiration och lärdomar av liknande fall användes för att minska effekten av dessa i synergi med andra alternativa lösningar. Resultaten visar att användningen av ett pantsystem kan potentiellt utökas för att inkludera små ihåliga produkter. Denna produktgrupp kan implementeras med relativt små medel, inkorporeras i den befintliga infrastrukturen, förstås av konsumenter och står för en tillräckligt hög andel av avfallet för en mätbar effekt. Fokus bör vara på icke-livsmedelsförpackningar för att undvika risk för kontaminering. Ökad medvetenhet hos konsumenter rörande plastfrågor i kombination med tydligare riktlinjer och styrmedel för att motivera återvinning av plastförpackningar identifierades som viktiga drivkrafter för ett utökat pantsystem.

Yes / In oil, gas and petrochemical production complexes, steam pressure boosting technology is used to recover low-pressure steam, using both mechanical and thermal solutions to increase energy efficiency. The heat recovery from steam, especially flash steam produced in the return condensate lines, can be considered an economic and attractive solution. In an industrial case study in a gas plant located in the south-west of Iran, the LP condensate returns to the LP condenser waste with a flow rate of 96,000 kg/h and a pressure of 0.45 bar. As a result of the pressure drop, about 6800 kg/h of flash steam is generated. Therefore, in order to recover, the first the return condensate current enters a flash drum to separate the amount of steam produced by the flash operation. In this research, two strategies for increasing the pressure using a steam compressor and an ejector have been investigated. The simulation results show that flash steam recycling using steam compressors and ejectors results in energy saving for the refinery of about one million and USD100k per year, and also about 152 and 137 thousand tons equivalent to carbon dioxide emissions per year are reduced, respectively.