Are Dividends Disappearing or Shrinking? Evidence from the Istanbul Stock Exchange

This paper examines the dividend payment decision of publicly owned firms listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) from 1991 through 2006. There is a decline in the percentage of net dividend payers, accompanied by a decline in the aggregate level of net real dividends paid. Contrary to the situation in developed markets, earnings and dividends concentration have declined over the sample period. The first mandatory dividend payment regulation pushed some firms to collect the distributed dividends back through rights issues and this resulted in low net dividend payments. One of the striking findings of this paper reveals that a majority of ISE firms prefer dividend omissions rather than dividend reductions. Once a firm keeps paying dividends, it puts much effort into increasing dividend payments rather than reducing them. Further, dividend payment and reduction decisions are affected by the current earnings of the firm and financial crisis significantly explains both the dividend payment and dividend reduction decisions.     

Corporate Environmental Initiatives in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and Their Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study

The impact from corporate business activities on the natural environment and society at large has been in focus for quite some time. The focus has often been on corporate environmental sustainability initiatives reflecting industry's response to concerns expressed by key stakeholders as well as the potential influence on the bottom line and the competitive situation. Much less investigated is the extent to which management itself perceives that corporate environmental initiatives actually lead to positive results. This is the very focus of this research, which is based on data collected by identical surveys of industrial companies in Denmark over a number of years. The results indicate a slightly increasing involvement over time, but also that the level of results achieved is lower than the level of initiatives taken. That is, the reactive attitude reported previously still seems to be prevailing. The results also seem to indicate that the size of the company may have a negative influence in some situations, since smaller companies seems to be better at achieving results compared with medium sized companies. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

基于污染负荷指数法的东莞麻涌河涌底泥重金属污染评价

对东莞市麻涌镇新基水系、东太水系、大步水系3条中小河流底泥中重金属含量应用污染负荷指数法进行了评估研究，为中小河流清淤疏浚、淤泥处理处置提供科学依据。结果表明：新基、东太、大步水系综合污染等级分别为III级、 I级和II级；Cd、 Cu污染较为普遍和严重。     

风险负荷下研发网络相继失效建模与仿真

由于企业内外部环境不稳定和研发网络结构比较复杂,针对企业之间容易发生的相继失效问题进行研究。根据研发网络特点,引用加权无标度模型生成研发网络,从风险负荷视角出发,借鉴负载容量模型思想,从节点初始负荷、节点容量和失效节点负荷重分配3个方面构建研发网络相继失效模型,运用数值仿真方法揭示相关规律。结果发现,网络相继失效规模随着容许参数的增加而稳定不变,在达到某一临界值后便直线下降直至稳定,此时对应的临界值即为关键风险阈值;每个可调参数对应着唯一一个关键风险阈值,并随着可调参数的增大而减小;网络相继失效规模随着可调参数的增大而扩张,随着权重系数的增大而降低;平均度与相继失效规模不相关。     

Dynamically interdependent business model for airline–airport coexistence

Governments provide various forms of financial support for sustaining unprofitable regional airways, especially when such airways are essential to local livelihoods and economies. However, inefficient provision of subsidies has been subject to worldwide criticism. Therefore, this study examines the load factor guarantee, a dynamically interdependent business model for airline-airport coexistence where an airline and an airport agree on the load factor of a flight, after which either party compensates for any discrepancies between the actual and agreed-upon load factor. The model is calibrated by using 2003–2014 data regarding Noto Airport and All Nippon Airways, and system dynamics are employed to model the dynamic interactions between the two parties. The findings show that successful coexistence between an airline and an airport hinges on the integral management of annual negotiations regarding the target load factor and the monthly demand adjustment of subsidies. In addition, although a subsidy represents a temporary financial loss for an airport, it is an effective way of maintaining long-term, airline–airport coexistence. This model is applicable to unprofitable airways worldwide, and it contributes to their sustainable management.     

Assessment of heavy metal contamination in coastal lake sediments associated with urbanization: Southern Kerala,India

The study of the spatiotemporal variation of heavy metals in lake sediments is of great importance because heavy metals can result in toxic effects on aquatic biota through bioaccumulation. This study was undertaken to evaluate the degree of heavy metal contamination in the lacustrine sediments and the corresponding environmental deterioration in a tropical, urban, coastal lake (Akkulam–Veli), located in Kerala, India. The spatiotemporal variations of the cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn) concentrations in the lake sediments, as well as various indices of anthropogenic contamination, including Contamination Factor (CF), Pollution Load Index and Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo), were used to assess the degree of contamination. This study indicated contamination of the lake sediments with Cu, Pb and Zn. Urban domestic sewage and land run‐off are the major drivers of the heavy metal loads to the lake. During the pre‐monsoon, sediment contamination occurs in the upstream portion of Akkulam Lake because of a high clay content in the sediments. During the monsoon period, Akkulam Lake and the upstream portion of Veli Lake exhibit sediment contamination owing to high silt content. Domestic sewage is the main source of copper and zinc to the lake. Sewage bypass into the drains in the lake basin is largely responsible for the copper and zinc sediment contamination. High traffic levels and wastewater discharges from service stations/workshops are the main cause of the Pb loads entering the lake. Rubber particles of vehicle tires contain zinc and copper pigments that can accumulate on the surface of busy streets, entering the drains during rainfall events. Based on these study results, the accumulation of copper, zinc and lead in lake sediment can be controlled to a great extent by restricting the above‐noted activities. As the sediment content of lead, zinc and copper is confined to the clay fraction during the non‐rainy season and to the silt fraction during other seasons, lake restoration work should largely incorporate treating the clay and silt fractions, respectively, during both the non‐rainy season and rainy season.     

华南红壤区坡面产流产沙对植被的响应

植被对坡面水蚀具有重要影响,其减水、减沙效益广受关注。以广东省五华县源坑水小流域2011—2014年的径流小区次降雨水沙观测数据为基础,分别在次降雨、月、年及不同降雨区间讨论植物类型差异、月际植被盖度变化、年际植物生长及不同次降雨量对坡面产流、产沙的影响。研究结果表明:(1)在次降雨尺度,植物小区平均减沙效益、减水效益分别为24.77%、12.95%,其减沙效益大于减水效益;(2)在各降雨区间,相较于裸土小区,桉树、松树和糖蜜草小区分别在次降雨量为20~30 mm、20~40 mm和20~50 mm的降雨区间具有较为显著的减沙效益。松树和糖蜜草在次降雨量为10~50 mm的降雨区间均具有显著的减水效益。但在次降雨量50mm的降雨区间植物的减沙、减水效益均不显著。(3)在月尺度上,各径流小区产流、产沙量均无显著差异。但由于月际植被盖度的变化,不同月份植物减沙效益数值顺序存在一定变化,但植物减水效益数值顺序较为稳定均呈现为糖蜜草松树桉树。(4)在年尺度上,桉树,松树和糖蜜草的减沙、减水效益区间分别为7.00%~38.66%、2.98%~8.76%,7.74%~37.30%、6.67%~19.67%和8.35%~45.33%、10.00%~23.36%。各径流小区年均次降雨产流、产沙数值顺序均呈现裸土小区桉树小区松树小区糖蜜草小区。各植物小区的减水效益与减沙效益相一致,表明相较于植物通过改变水沙关系减沙而言,植物主要是通过减水来减沙。     

堆载预压法在深航基地停机坪工程中的应用

介绍深航基地停机坪工程的软基处理．该工程采用了堆载预压为主的软基处理方案,在处理过程进行了总沉降以及水平位移的观测,观测值均满足设计要求．     

Dimensionality reduction in forecasting with temporal hierarchies

Combining forecasts from multiple temporal aggregation levels exploits information differences and mitigates model uncertainty, while reconciliation ensures a unified prediction that supports aligned decisions at different horizons. It can be challenging to estimate the full cross-covariance matrix for a temporal hierarchy, which can easily be of very large dimension, yet it is difficult to know a priori which part of the error structure is most important. To address these issues, we propose to use eigendecomposition for dimensionality reduction when reconciling forecasts to extract as much information as possible from the error structure given the data available. We evaluate the proposed estimator in a simulation study and demonstrate its usefulness through applications to short-term electricity load and financial volatility forecasting. We find that accuracy can be improved uniformly across all aggregation levels, as the estimator achieves state-of-the-art accuracy while being applicable to hierarchies of all sizes.     

基于负载均衡的图书馆随书光盘管理研究

随着存储技术的不断发展,越来越多的纸质文献开始配备光盘来弥补其互动性、视听性、检索性等方面的缺陷,而图书馆在收录纸质文献过程中也必然会同时收录光盘,并对光盘进行管理。目前将光盘内容上网成为图书馆对光盘的主要管理方式,但随着师生下载的增多,如何解决网络瓶颈成为当务之急,本文提出使用负载均衡技术来解决这一难题。