Performance Impacts of Strategy,Information Technology Applications,and Business Process Outsourcing in U.S. Manufacturing Plants

This paper develops a conceptual model to study the role of outsourcing strategies and plant‐level information technology (IT) application infrastructure in the outsourcing of production and support business processes, as well as their subsequent impact on overall plant performance. We validate this model empirically using cross‐sectional survey data from U.S. manufacturing plants. We find that some IT applications are more effective at enabling the outsourcing of business processes than others. For example, the implementation of enterprise management systems is associated with the outsourcing of both production and support processes, whereas operations management systems are not associated with the outsourcing of plant processes. Plants with a low‐cost outsourcing strategy are more likely to outsource support processes than plants with a competency‐focused outsourcing strategy. However, both cost‐ and competency‐based strategies have a positive and similar impact on the outsourcing of production processes. In terms of implications for plant performance, our findings indicate that the outsourcing of production and support processes is associated with higher gross margins. Although plant IT infrastructure is positively associated with favorable on‐time delivery rates, there is no positive association between the incidence of plant outsourcing and on‐time delivery rates. These results have implications for crafting plant‐level outsourcing strategies and for investments in IT systems to facilitate the outsourcing of business processes for enhanced plant performance.     

An integrated environmental risk assessment framework for coal-fired power plants: A fuzzy logic approach

This study quantifies the environmental risk of a coal-fired thermal power plant during operation by using environmental monitoring data, site surveys, and documented evidence. The following criteria are assessed: emissions (CO, SO₂, NO_x, PM₁₀), impact on aquatic ecosystem (fish protection at cooling water intake and cooling water discharge temperature), and waste management (fly ash and bottom ash). Fuzzy sets were defined for each criterion, taking environmental regulatory context as an expert judgment. A survey was conducted with multiple stakeholders to determine the relative importance of risk factors. The survey results showed that the most concerned risks are SO₂ and NO_x emissions. The proposed method estimates the risk of each environmental criterion separately and then accumulates them into an environmental risk index (ERI). Accordingly, we assessed the Catalagzi coal-fired power plant, which has been in operation on the Black Sea coast in northwestern Turkey. For this case study, the ERI resulted in a value of 0.78 (on a scale of 0–1), showing high environmental risk to the facility. Moreover, the applicability of the proposed framework was tested in several existing coal-fired power plants using simultaneous measurements. All studied coal-fired power plants in Turkey have unacceptable pollutants (PM₁₀, SO₂, and NO_x) concentration levels indicating high health risk potential. The application of the integrated environmental risk assessment framework showed that new environmental regulations are needed in Turkey to specify more strict emission limits and to monitor CO₂, fine particulate matter emissions, cooling water discharge, and fish protection at cooling water intake.     

Risk analysis of fast spreading species in a Kashmir Himalayan National Park (Dachigam) for better monitoring and management

Huge economic costs and ecological impacts of invasive alien species (IAS) in the protected areas (PAs) worldwide make their timely prediction and potential risk assessment of central importance for effective management. While the preborder weed risk assessment framework has been extensively evaluated and implemented, the postborder species risk assessment framework has not been subjected to the same degree of scrutiny. Here we used a rather more realistic modified version of the Australian Weed Risk framework (AWRM) for Dachigam National Park (DNP) in Kashmir Himalaya against 84 plant species, including 55 alien species and 29 fast spreading native species, for risk analysis. We found two very high-risk species, three high-risk species, 10 medium-risk species, 29 low-risk species, and 40 negligible-risk species in the DNP. The containment scores accordingly ranged from 14.4 to 293.5 comprising of 27 species that can be contained with very high feasibility, 23 species with high feasibility, 14 species with medium feasibility, and 12 species which cannot be contained easily thereby having low feasibility of containment (FOC) score. However, eight species which have a negligible FOC score are difficult to contain within their infestation sites. Our results demonstrate the merit of the AWRM with a caution that the necessary region-specific modifications may help in its better implementation. Overall, these results provide quite a promising tool in the hands of protected area managers to timely and effectively deal with the problem of plant invasions.     

植物生理生化教学创新体系探索与实践

高等教育的任务是培养具有创新精神和创新能力的高级专门人才。良好的创新环境,可以激发学生潜在创新能力的发挥。本研究从优化创新型人才成才的硬环境（创新教育基地）和软环境（教学创新和知识创新）出发,建立有效的教学创新体系,提高学生创新意识和综合素质,培养创新人才。     

大学校园户外交往空间的植物景观设计

植物是构成校园空间环境的重要因素,具有围合、限定、美化空间的作用。本文对植物围合空间的特点、基本尺度、形式以及设计原则等方面进行了分析,并针对校园不同交往空间的植物景观设计进行了阐述。     

高活性植物生长调节剂在青菜心上应用研究

用新研制的植物调节制对3个品种青菜心进行应用研究，结果表明：(1)各品种菜心薹重比对照有显增加．应用新调节剂浓度3mg／L、4mg／L、5mg/L、6mg/L，港选28号、粗条18号、金山等品种菜心薹重比对照分别增加56．5％、187．8％、114．3％和160．6％，88．8％、87．3％、284．3％和113．0％．90．8％、118．1％、244．3％和129．7％，增产幅度明显；(2)各品种菜心应用新调节剂后，株高、叶长、叶宽、开展度、薹高、薹粗都比对照提高，新调节剂对菜心有显促生长作用；(3)各品种菜心商品率(地上青绿可食部分)比对照有显增加．应用上面4种浓度，港选28号、粗条18号、金山品种菜心商品率比对照分别提高9．2％、15．6％、12．6％和27．1％，7．9％、15．7％、28．3％和16．5％，10．5％、23．0％、21．2％和18．6％，商品率提高，可增加菜农收入；(4)各品种青菜心应用新调节剂后，产量和商品率均有显增加，品种之间无差异，说明新调节剂对各品种菜心均有促进生长活性．     

民众对核电综合风险认知的成本量化研究

为解决民众核电风险认知对其核电可接受的影响的量化问题,文章对不同地区的600多人进行问卷调查。在研究民众传统核电事故风险认知的同时,基于核电建设的大规模土地使用,添加民众对核电建设土地占用风险的认知。通过熵权法对民众的核电事故风险认知、核电建设的土地占用风险认知进行权重确定,求出综合风险认知以此量化核电建设中民众对这两种风险认知造成的成本。研究结果表明,民众的核电事故风险认知、核电建设土地占用风险的认知对其态度影响不仅是显著的,而且综合风险认知对民众核电站建设的接受态度的影响也是显著的,随着民众对核电综合风险认知的增加,民众对核电站建设的支持度会越来越低,造成的综合风险认知成本也会越来越高。     

对三峡库区区县污水处理工程建设若干问题的思考

本文结合三峡库区区县的现状 ,对库区区县污水处理工程中的几个问题提出了自己的看法。认为在三峡库区区县完善排水管网系统和建设城市污水处理厂迫在眉睫 ,氧化沟工艺不失为三峡库区区县污水处理工程的首选工艺。在除磷问题上要采取一些工程措施 ,必要时辅以化学除磷。     

Efficient Semi-Latin Rectangles: Designs for Plant Disease Experiments

Experiments on disease in plants often use half-leaves as experimental units. The whole leaves are typically in the rectangular array formed by h leaf-heights (rows) and p plants (columns), where h < p . We specialize to the case where h = n and p = 2 n and there are 2 n treatments. If each treatment occurs once per column and twice per row, we call such a design a semi-Latin rectangle. Efficient semi-Latin rectangles of such sizes are constructed for 2 ≤ n ≤ 10. Guidance is given on their use.