scholarly journals Replacement depreciation and price regulation

2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-20
Author(s):  
IJ Lambrechts
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Natural Monopoly ◽  
Price Regulation ◽  
Liquid Fuels ◽  
Economic Regulation ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Historical Cost ◽  
Investment Rates ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Moment

Price regulation occurs quite commonly amongst natural monopolies which frequently include public utilities. In South Africa and in certain countries in Africa, there has recently been a revival of price regulation in certain industries and enterprises, where competition is limited or non-existent. Price regulation can be applied in a multitude of ways. Because of the importance of the price levels (historical and replacement) in the price setting exercise, the focus in this paper will be on the issue of depreciation to arrive at the final prices. The electricity utility industry was historically viewed as a highly mature and heavily regulated natural monopoly. In many parts of the world, electricity utilities have already been deregulated to a large extent and in the United States the process was preceded by a process of unbundling or ringfencing of the main divisions, i.e. generation and distribution. Even the network component of transmission, traditionally seen as natural monopolies, was deregulated to a large extent. The deregulation process, whether fully or partially, emphasised the requirement for a detailed explanation for a specific price level. The need for acceptable and transparent selling prices has, therefore, not disappeared. Regulatory pricing is consequently a vital component of pricing at this stage and in the restructured industry it will continue to play an important role because of a limited number of participants. In other sectors of the South African energy industry too, the deregulation process has either not started or has not been completed. Price regulation is presently and will in future be applicable to the liquid fuels industry, which includes the pipeline of Petronet as well as gas pipelines. Other industries which are being price regulated at the moment include water, medicine, telecommunication (fixed lines) and postal rates. Although the economic regulation for these industries may differ substantially, the principles applying to depreciation calculations would be similar. Replacement depreciation produces lower profit figures during periods of inflation. Quoted companies often oppose this system because of a lack of taxation recognition on income and the adverse effect on earnings per share. This paper covers the calculation of depreciation by price regulators where assets are not diversified (single assets). Shorter depreciation lifetimes based on historical cost result in an automatic provision for replacement depreciation. The extent of the provision would be a function of the difference between the actual and selected lifetimes, income tax rates, re-investment rates and the extent of the financial gearing ratio. Provision for replacement depreciation may be reduced significantly, if not reduced completely, by reducing depreciation lifetimes.

scholarly journals COMPARISON OF DETERMINATION OF SNOW LOADS FOR ROOFS IN BUILDING CODES OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
Alexander Belostotsky ◽  
Nikita Britikov ◽  
Oleg Goryachevsky
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Building Codes ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Snow Loads ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Moment

The article compares the requirements for calculating the snow load on the coatings of buildings and structures in accordance with the regulations of technically developed countries and associations – Russia, the European Union, Canada and the United States. It was revealed that in these norms the general approaches, the subtleties of calculating the coefficients, the set of standard coatings and the schemes of the form coefficient proposed for them differ significantly. This situation reflects the general problem of determining snow loads – at the moment there is no recognized unified scientifically grounded approach to determining snow loads on coatings of even the simplest form. The difference in the normative schemes of snow loads is clearly demonstrated by the example of a three-level roof.

Traumatic Brain Injury: A Trauma Surgeon's Perspective

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-89
Author(s):  
Oscar D. Guillamondegui
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Trauma Team ◽  
The United States ◽  
Long Term Outcomes ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Injured Brain ◽  
The Moment

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious epidemic in the United States. It affects patients of all ages, race, and socioeconomic status (SES). The current care of these patients typically manifests after sequelae have been identified after discharge from the hospital, long after the inciting event. The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of identification and management of the TBI patient from the moment of injury through long-term care as a multidisciplinary approach. By promoting an awareness of the issues that develop around the acutely injured brain and linking them to long-term outcomes, the trauma team can initiate care early to alter the effect on the patient, family, and community. Hopefully, by describing the care afforded at a trauma center and by a multidisciplinary team, we can bring a better understanding to the armamentarium of methods utilized to treat the difficult population of TBI patients.

A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF DEPRECIATION ACCOUNTING — THE UNITED STATES STEEL EXPERIENCE

1989 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Auman Reed
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Physical Capital ◽  
Cost Accounting ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reporting Bias ◽  
Productive Capacity ◽  
Replacement Cost ◽  
Historical Cost ◽  
Steel Corporation

This paper examines the magnitude of the reporting bias inherent in the historical cost accounting of a firm's physical capital. Reported depreciation data pertaining to U.S. Steel Corporation (currently USX) between 1939 and 1987 are compared with standardized historical cost figures and replacement cost estimates. The findings suggest that replacement cost depreciation would have provided more information about U.S. Steel's ability to maintain its productive capacity than historical cost depreciation did. Thus, this analysis provides an illustration of one of the primary arguments for replacement cost accounting.

scholarly journals Elastic Simulation of Joints with Particle-Based Fluid

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 6900
Author(s):  
Su-Kyung Sung ◽  
Sang-Won Han ◽  
Byeong-Seok Shin
Keyword(s):  
Principal Stress ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Yield Condition ◽  
Maximum Principal Stress ◽  
Human Motion ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Moment ◽  
External Forces ◽  
Physical Changes ◽  
Elastic Simulation

Skinning, which is used in skeletal simulations to express the human body, has been weighted between bones to enable muscle-like motions. Weighting is not a form of calculating the pressure and density of muscle fibers in the human body. Therefore, it is not possible to express physical changes when external forces are applied. To express a similar behavior, an animator arbitrarily customizes the weight values. In this study, we apply the kernel and pressure-dependent density variations used in particle-based fluid simulations to skinning simulations. As a result, surface tension and elasticity between particles are applied to muscles, indicating realistic human motion. We also propose a tension yield condition that reflects Tresca’s yield condition, which can be easily approximated using the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the principal stress to simulate the tension limit of the muscle fiber. The density received by particles in the kernel is assumed to be the principal stress. The difference is calculated by approximating the moment of greatest force to the maximum principal stress and the moment of least force to the minimum principal stress. When the density of a particle increases beyond the yield condition, the object is no longer subjected to force. As a result, one can express realistic muscles.

scholarly journals Loading Effect of Prosthetic Feet’s Anthropomorphicity on Transtibial Osseointegrated Implant

2021 ◽  
Vol 186 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 681-687
Author(s):  
Mark Pitkin ◽  
Laurent Frossard
Keyword(s):  
Free Flow ◽  
Convex Shape ◽  
Bone Implant ◽  
Concave Shape ◽  
Early Loosening ◽  
Osseointegrated Implants ◽  
Osseointegrated Implant ◽  
Quantitative Characteristics ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Moment

ABSTRACT Introduction Osseointegrated implants for direct skeletal attachment of transtibial prosthesis carry risks that are yet to be fully resolved, such as early loosening, mechanical failure of percutaneous and medullar parts of implant, periprosthetic issues, and infections. Underloading could lead to early loosening and infection. Overloading might compromise the bone–implant interface. Therefore, Goldilocks loading regimen applied by transtibial bone-anchored prostheses is critical for safe and efficient development of osseointegration around the implant during rehabilitation and beyond. We hypothesized that Goldilocks loading could be achieved when ambulating with a so-called anthropomorphic prosthetic ankle showing moment–angle relationship similar to a sound ankle. Materials and Methods Quantitative characteristics of the moment–angle curve of the sound ankle during dorsiflexion phase of a free-pace walking were extracted for 4 able-bodied participants (experiment 1). A slope of the moment–angle curve (stiffness) was calculated twice: for the first half and for the second half of the moment–angle curve. The difference of stiffnesses (those at the second half minus at the first half) was called the index of anthropomorphicity (IA). By definition, positive IA is associated with concave shape of the moment–angle curve, and the negative IA is associated with convex shape. In experiment 2, the same recordings and calculations were performed for 3 participants fitted with transtibial osseointegrated fixation during walking with their usual feet and the Free-Flow Foot (Ohio Willow Wood). The Free-Flow Foot was selected for its anthropomorphicity demonstrated in the previous studies with amputees using traditional socket attachment. Results The IA was 5.88 ± 0.93 for the able-bodied participants, indicating that the stiffness during the first part of the dorsiflexion phase was substantially fewer than during the second parts, as the calf muscles resisted to angulation in ankle substantially less than during the second part of dorsiflexion phase. For amputees fitted with Free-Flow Foot, IA was 2.68 ± 1.09 and −2.97 ± 2.37 for the same amputees fitted with their usual feet. Conclusions Indexes of anthropomorphicity, while of different magnitude, were positive in control able-bodied group and in the amputee group wearing Free-Flow Foot, which was qualitatively associated with concave shape of their moment–angle curves. The 3 usual feet worn by the participants were classified as nonanthropomorphic as their individual moment–angle curves were convex and the corresponding IAs were negative. Furthermore, this study showed that a foot with anthropomorphic characteristics tends to decrease maximal loads at the bone–implant interface as compared to the nonanthropomorphic feet and possibly may minimize the risks to compromise the integrity of this interface.

scholarly journals The Effect of Massachusetts' Health Reform on Employer-Sponsored Insurance Premiums

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
John F Cogan ◽  
R. Glenn Hubbard ◽  
Daniel Kessler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Reform ◽  
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey ◽  
Private Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Expenditure ◽  
Insurance Premiums ◽  
Reform Plan ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Cost

In this paper, we use publicly available data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) to investigate the effect of Massachusetts' health reform plan on employer-sponsored insurance premiums. We tabulate premium growth for private-sector employers in Massachusetts and the United States as a whole for 2004 - 2008. We estimate the effect of the plan as the difference in premium growth between Massachusetts and the United States between 2006 and 2008—that is, before versus after the plan—over and above the difference in premium growth for 2004 to 2006. We find that health reform in Massachusetts increased single-coverage employer-sponsored insurance premiums by about 6 percent, or $262. Although our research design has important limitations, it does suggest that policy makers should be concerned about the consequences of health reform for the cost of private insurance.

scholarly journals La contrebande des produits du tabac au Canada entre 1985 et 1994 et le cas particulier du Québec

Criminologie ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Alain
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Eastern Canada ◽  
Mass Consumption ◽  
Cigarette Taxes ◽  
Geographical Factors ◽  
The World ◽  
The Difference

The professional smuggling of mass consumption products develops when demand for a product is not adequately fulfilled by the legitimate market. The difficulties encountered in supplying are, in most contemporary cases, caused by real rarity of the desired product. For other cases, however, the rarity is largely virtual in that government taxes aimed at the product in question lead to increasing the product's price to a prohibitive end. This was the case with cigarettes in Canada between 1985 and 1994. Before both, the federal and provincial, governments decided to drastically decrease cigarette taxes in February 1994, the price for a pack of cigarettes was five to six times higher than the same product in the United States. This article begins with a brief review of the contribution made by economists in regard to contemporary smuggling. Focus will be aimed at common characteristics of the smuggling phenomenon across the world. Elements which are more particular to the Canadian smuggling situation will be identified as well. While the difference in the price of cigarettes between Canada and the United States would seem to be the undeniable driving force behind the development of smuggling activities at the countries ' border, one key question remains unexplained. Why was the volume of contraband unequally distributed across Canada even though the price of cigarettes remained largely consistent throughout all provinces? The level of organization of smuggling networks was much higher in Eastern Canada, and particularly in Quebec, than it was in the western provinces. It is argued that the reasons for this are not only due to price, but to a series of political, historical, and geographical factors which allowed cigarette smugglers to function better in Quebec than in the rest of the country.

Psychiatry’s “Chemical Imbalance” Fraud: Who Killed Rebecca Riley?

2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred A. Baughman
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Diagnosis And Treatment ◽  
Normal Person ◽  
Organic Disease ◽  
Health Care Fraud ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Congressional Hearing ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Chemical Imbalance ◽  
The Brain

All physicians attend medical school and learn of (a) all things physically normal; anatomy, physiology, and chemistry, (b) all things physically abnormal; pathology, disease, and (c) how to tell the difference. Diagnosis is the first obligation of every physician to every patient, and must precede treatment. Diagnosis first asks, “Is there a physical abnormality (physical abnormality = disorder = disease), yes or no?” Patients with no abnormality (no physical abnormality = no disorder = no disease = normal) are referred to as having “no evidence or disease” (NED) or “no organic disease” (NOD). Their problems may be psychological or psychiatric, but they are not medical or surgical. In patients found to have an abnormality, diagnosis now asks, “Which disease?” Psychiatrists are the only physicians who do not perform physical diagnosis. The absence of disease is determined for them by other physicians, usually referring physicians. In 1948 the previously conjoint specialty of neuropsychiatry was divided into neurology—responsible for the diagnosis and treatment or physical/organic disease of the nervous system—and psychiatry—responsible for the treatment of emotional and psychological problems, none of them due to organic diseases. Nor did psychiatry object to this scientific division of labor at the time. However, in the 1950s, with the advent of psychotropic drugs, psychiatry, increasingly in league with the pharmaceutical industry, began referring to psychological diagnoses as disorders/diseases/chemical imbalances of the brain, albeit with no proof or science. In a congressional hearing in 1970, psychiatrists and federal officials, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, represented hyperkinetic disorder (HKD) to be a disorder/disease of the brain leading to the appropriation of millions of dollars for research, diagnosis and treatment into the drug treatment of school children said to have the new disease HKD. HKD became ADD, then ADHD, a disorder/disease/chemical imbalance always in need of a “chemical balancer”—a pill. Without proof of an abnormality/disorder/disease, the ADHD epidemic grew from 150,000 in 1970 to 6 million to 7 million today, the most common childhood diagnosis in the United States, a multi-billion dollar industry, and a model for all 374 DSM–IV psychological/psychiatric diagnoses—none of them actual diseases. As such, psychiatry is not a legitimate branch of medicine deserving scientific-fiscal parity; rather, collectively, it is the greatest health care fraud in history. Every time a so-called chemical imbalance is diagnosed, a patient’s right to informed consent has been abrogated. Every time a medically normal person is treated with a psychotropic chemical balancer—a pill—their first and only abnormality is the iatrogenic intoxication: poisoning.

Equal Opportunity in a Pluralistic Society

1987 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Nickel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pluralistic Society ◽  
Self Image ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The U.S

The United States has never been culturally or religiously homogeneous, but its diversity has greatly increased over the last century. Although the U.S. was first a multicultural nation through conquest and enslavement, its present diversity is due equally to immigration. In this paper I try to explain the difference it makes for one area of thought and policy – equal opportunity – if we incorporate cultural and religious pluralism into our national self-image. Formulating and implementing a policy of equal opportunity is more difficult in diverse, pluralistic countries than it is in homogeneous ones. My focus is cultural and religious diversity in the United States, but my conclusions will apply to many other countries – including ones whose pluralism is found more in religion than in culture.

scholarly journals Performance and style in the work of Olgyay and Olgyay

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Leatherbarrow ◽  
Richard Wesley
Keyword(s):  
Graphical Representation ◽  
Building Design ◽  
The United States ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Control Device ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Open Architecture ◽  
Form Generation ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Building Energy Analysis

The sun control device has to be on the outside of the building, an element of the facade, an element of architecture. And because this device is so important a part of our open architecture, it may develop into as characteristic a form as the Doric column.Victor Olgyay (1910–1970), a Hungarian architect who came to the United States in 1947 with his twin brother and collaborator, Aladár (1910–1963), is best known today as the author of Design with Climate: Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural Regionalism (1963), an important book often referenced in the environmental building design field [1]. As leaders in research in bioclimatic architecture from the early 1950s to the late 1960s, the Olgyay brothers could be considered the ‘fathers’ of contemporary environmental building design. Their research and publications laid the foundation for much of the building simulation software in use today. Other than the difference between working on graph paper and using computer-generated graphics, there is little difference between Autodesk's Ecotect Analysis (simulation and building energy analysis software) and the Olgyays' techniques for the analysis of environmental factors and graphical representation of climate. The manner in which the Olgyays established connections between building design and the science of climate laid the foundation for the development of environmental simulation, one of contemporary architecture's leading methods of form generation. Victor Olgyay's teaching, however, represents another kind of thinking, a broader concern for architecture, beyond energy performance. ‘The primary task of architecture,’ Olgyay announced to his students, ‘is to act in man's favour; to interpose itself between man and his natural surroundings in order to remove the environmental load from his shoulders.

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