A Comparision of Two Methods of Linking Spatial and Economic Data from Farm Surveys

Linking scientific and economic data potentially has many benefits for natural resource management and policy analysis. This paper compares a sophisticated method for bringing these data together in farm surveys using detailed farm boundary data collected during an interview, with a less onerous approach requiring only a single point from each surveyed farm. A comparison is made by modelling land values using regression analysis in central New South Wales. It was found that there were only minor additional benefits from using the more sophisticated approach in this case. Additionally, there are significant costs in collecting and processing the detailed georeferencing data that make it considerably less practical than the simpler approach.     

THE TRADE DISCOUNT DECISION: A MARKOV CHAIN APPROACH*

Economic theory indicates that higher returns are required from investments that have higher risk. Two major reasons for offering trade discounts are to stimulate sales and to speed up cash receipts. Both sales increases and the earlier receipt of cash impact the risk/return characteristics of a firm. This study uses a Markov chain model to demonstrate how alternative trade credit policies impact the risk and required returns of a firm. The amount of risk and return per credit sale is calculated, and the coefficient of variation is used as a risk/return measure per credit sale. The study concludes that trade discounts can have a favorable impact on the risk/return characteristics of a firm, even in the absence of increased sales volume. Other discount decision factors which are either directly or indirectly determined in this paper include: (1) the average number of periods for which an account is outstanding, (2) the probability of collection and bad-debt losses over the average account period, (3) the average speed of payment, and (4) the average amount of cash tied up in accounts receivable.     

Advances on a Decision Analytic Approach to Exposure-Based Chemical Prioritization

The volume and variety of manufactured chemicals is increasing, although little is known about the risks associated with the frequency and extent of human exposure to most chemicals. The EPA and the recent signing of the Lautenberg Act have both signaled the need for high-throughput methods to characterize and screen chemicals based on exposure potential, such that more comprehensive toxicity research can be informed. Prior work of Mitchell et al. using multicriteria decision analysis tools to prioritize chemicals for further research is enhanced here, resulting in a high-level chemical prioritization tool for risk-based screening. Reliable exposure information is a key gap in currently available engineering analytics to support predictive environmental and health risk assessments. An elicitation with 32 experts informed relative prioritization of risks from chemical properties and human use factors, and the values for each chemical associated with each metric were approximated with data from EPA's CP_CAT database. Three different versions of the model were evaluated using distinct weight profiles, resulting in three different ranked chemical prioritizations with only a small degree of variation across weight profiles. Future work will aim to include greater input from human factors experts and better define qualitative metrics.     

Sonic air-conditioning: muzak as affect management for office workers in Japan

Muzak is what musique concrète composer Pierre Schaeffer referred to as “acousmatic sound” – sound we hear without seeing its source. Muzak’s presence in public space is particularly relevant in Japan, a country often critiqued or celebrated as a “sound saturated society” where background music is engineered to a spectacular degree. BGM, as Muzak is referred to in Japanese, is simultaneously unnoticed, dismissed, ironically appreciated, and, more recently, used to heal, calm, and manage white-collar office workers at a time in which mental health issues, work-life balance, and the negative effects of overwork on office workers are increasingly on the rise. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with background music employees in Tokyo and analysis of the company’s print media literature concerning their music for office workers program, this essay explores the relationship between background music and the affective management of worker stress in contemporary Japan. I argue that BGM in Japan is emerging as a form of ambient labor control that exploits a particular mode of sonic engagement. The essay focuses in particular on the culture industry surrounding the use of BGM as a means to effectively manage office workers and their environments in post-economic bubble Japan.     

Documentary Images: Visual Information Made to Order

This paper discusses the nature of documentary images, which appear to be inherently true, self evident visual statements. However, a degree of visual literacy is required of viewers before appropriate image understanding can occur. The nature of the image as icon, index, and as symbol combined to provide a powerful reinforcement of historical and current assumptions regarding documentation. Image construction and understanding are both prescribed by codes which may introduce additional meaning into the photograph. The work of Walker Evans, and other documentary photographers are used as examples of the multiple messages that are imbedded in documentary images. Finally, contemporary image technologies, scanning and digitizing are discussed within the documentary context, the use of such technologies raises questions about the ethics and credibility of photographic information.