Web-cam’s potential for collaborative activities in the Earth sciences

We report here our experiences from using easily acquired web-cam components for collaborative ventures in the Earth sciences. We have used a variety of hardware and different software. We demonstrate from various locations in the U.S.A. the feasibility of using web-cam in multitudinous activities, relevant for conducting research and knowledge dissemination. We summarize the quality of the connections from the various combinations of communicating parties. Today, web-cams can be utilized as an economical and viable means of point-to-point communication in the Earth science community. Greater bandwidth is sorely needed for activities such as multi-party conferencing on the present internet network. We propose that web-cam can be readily deployed as a web-service for facilitating collaborative research over the GRID infrastructure, using the middleware Narada-Brokering. Web-cam will play an important role in the emerging field of geoinformatics.     

An examination of long-lived asset impairments under SFAS No. 121

Until recently, the impairment of long-lived assets and identifiable intangibles was a controversial and unresolved accounting issue. Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 121 on long-lived asset impairments provides guidelines in selecting the conditions or circumstances that justify or necessitate a writedown and in measuring, recognizing, and disclosing the amounts of asset impairments. The results indicate that the financial impacts of 935 writedowns reported by 670 companies are quite significant and, in some cases, up to 10 times that of reported earnings. Moreover, the results indicate that industry classification consistently had a significant effect on the dependent variables used as proxies for the financial impacts of asset impairments.     

A Compendium of Multi‐Item Scales Utilized in Logistics Research (2001–10): Progress Achieved Since Publication of the 1973–2000 Compendium

Forty years have passed since the first multi‐item measurement scales were employed through survey research to better understand important logistics concepts. Through the years, four leading logistics journals have published research containing a total of 1,670 scales within 283 articles. A 42% increase in utilization has occurred during the most recent decade. The research fully discloses the conceptualization, composition, and properties of the multi‐item survey scales utilized in the study of logistics and supply chain management theory and practice. By documenting each scale published from 2001 to 2010, the authors make comparisons with results from the 1973–2000 study. Primary findings indicate an increase in the percentage of research utilizing multi‐item scales, and an increase in the application of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) has assisted in producing more highly acceptable psychometric properties of the scales. This implies that researchers are utilizing more highly developed scales and following strict scale‐development procedures for building more robust scales to measure concepts important for advancing our knowledge of logistics and supply chain management. The top four conceptual categories for the scales have remained the same since 1973 and account for greater than half of the scales published. Eight additions to the categories since 2001 pertain greatly to controlling our supply chains for customer, brand, and overall security benefits. The compendium of scales provides a central document to reference as researchers seek to employ highly developed survey measures.     

Kundensegmentierung im Handel — Kaufmotive erkennen und nutzen

Konsumenten verhalten sich heute multioptional. Gelingt es H?ndlern, Einblicke in Kaufmotive ihrer Kunden zu gewinnen, k?nnen sie in ihren Sortimenten und Filialen ein klares und unverwechselbares Profil aufbauen und Marketingressourcen gezielt einsetzen. Dieser Beitrag stellt eine Anleitung zur Segmentierung nach Kaufmotiven vor und beschreibt am Beispiel des Textil-, M?belfach- und Lebensmitteldetailhandels sechs typische Kundensegmente.     

银行业表现不佳吗？——19个经合组织成员国（OECD）的银行业长期表现的市场评估（续上期）

本文试图回答关于经合组织成员国银行业经济表现的以下一些问题,如:银行业股票的表现不如一般市场表现是否由银行业的行业特性所致,即是不是在大多数工业化国家,银行业的表现不如其他行业?主要经合组织国家银行业的长期表现给我们什么启示?我们如何使用一种比会计指标更为客观的方法来衡量行业表现?为了回答这些问题,我们研究了经合组织成员国银行业股票长达30年的数据。在我们的分析中,我们使用了各国银行业股票每月和每日的收益数据系列。在大多数经合组织国家,银行业股票的表现要好于市场的整体表现。简而言之,银行业不是制造业。但是,在我们所研究的经合组织国家之间存在着天壤之别。所有盎格鲁-萨克逊国家的银行业表现都非常出色,而德国和日本的银行业表现却很糟糕。德国和日本,银行业的不佳表现是一个长期问题,其股票市场数据分别可以追溯到一、二十年以前。我们以市场为基础而不是会计指标为基础来衡量银行业的表现。我们使用了两种市场分析指标:行业相对表现指数RSPI(RelativeSectorPerformanceIndex)和行业特性股票市场收益因素的平均变化MAIS(MovingAverageofIndustrySpecificStockMarketReturnComponents,)。根据我们在文章中所阐述的理由,以市场为基础的MAIS指标也许特别值得那些至今还完全依赖会计绩效指标的银行监管部门的注意。