This paper examines the experience of the Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) managing its employees in a new plant established in Chennai, India. The establishment of the Indian plant in 1998 marked an important attempt by HMC to ‘relaunch’ its globalisation strategy after an earlier failure to manufacture in Canada. The ability of HMC to adopt an appropriate employment relations strategy in India will be an important factor determining its success as a global manufacturer. A key issue facing the Hyundai Motor Company of India (HMI) is the role to be accorded to unions and employee representation in the plant.

The Working Party has produced this report in order to prompt readers to engage at an early stage in InsurTech projects, through considering (i) the full range of risks associated with InsurTech developments, (ii) the lifecycle of an InsurTech venture and how any risk considerations may vary over this lifecycle and (iii) the extent to which InsurTech ventures align with risk strategy and risk appetite.

The report contains practical guidance for actuaries, risk professionals, insurance companies and their Boards on these considerations, and can be used to facilitate appropriate questioning, to help ensure that InsurTech-related business decisions are fully cognisant of the risk management issues and to help ensure the success of projects.

The Working Party developed this guidance having carried out an industry survey on a number of risk management topics relating to InsurTech, as well as having carried out interviews with a number of relevant senior stakeholders across the insurance industry, in order to better understand current sentiment and how risk management plays a part when considering opportunities in InsurTech. The Working Party views on the findings from these activities are summarised in the report.

The paper describes the dynamic ice-structure interaction study of monopod platforms (fixed type) which are of considerable interest to the off-shore oil industry in cold regions. In view of the scantiness of continuous ice-force records, artificial-force records are generated from available small-scale field ice-force records using stochastic concepts. The method, based on the similarity between the fluctuating parts of randomly varying ice-force records and the seismic records uses a non-stationary random process obtained from filtering a shot noise through a second-order filter. The dynamic response analysis of a monopod structure located at Cook Inlet, Alaska, is carried out by hybridizing the relevant sub-routines of the computer programmes, SAP IV (Structural Analysis Programme) and EATSW (Earthquake response of Axisymmetric Tower Structures surrounded by Water). The work includes a study of the influence of soil properties on the frequencies and responses, and a comparison between the responses of fixed and elastically supported (by the soil foundation) monopod platforms.

On 30 May 2012, Surrey and Sussex Health Protection Unit was called by five nurseries reporting children and staff with sudden onset vomiting approximately an hour after finishing their lunch that day. Over the following 24 h 50 further nurseries supplied by the same company reported cases of vomiting (182 children, 18 staff affected). Epidemiological investigations were undertaken in order to identify the cause of the outbreak and prevent further cases. Investigations demonstrated a nursery-level attack rate of 55 out of 87 nurseries (63·2%, 95% confidence interval 52·2–73·3). Microbiological tests confirmed the presence of Bacillus cereus in food and environmental samples from the catering company and one nursery. This was considered microbiologically and epidemiologically consistent with toxin from this bacterium causing the outbreak. Laboratory investigations showed that the conditions used by the caterer for soaking of pearl haricot beans (known as navy bean in the USA) used in one of the foods supplied to the nurseries prior to cooking, was likely to have provided sufficient growth and toxin production of B. cereus to cause illness. This large outbreak demonstrates the need for careful temperature control in food preparation.

Increased attention is being directed to electronic markets in the major agricultural commodities. Electronic markets are characterized by a trading arena that has been centralized via some electronic medium. The medium used may be a conference telephone, teletype, computer system, or some combination of these or other mechanisms. All make possible the sale of a commodity by description without requiring the physical proximity of buyer, seller, and product. In theory, this capability can eliminate or reduce the spatial imperfections and pricing problems now present in many “thin” markets, a topic of increasing concern throughout the food industry (Hayenga).

Recent interest in thin markets and rapidly advancing technology has focused increased attention on electronic marketing (Henderson et al.; Russell; Schlei), with particular emphasis on computerized trading systems. Decreased costs of access and increased reliability of computer hardware, software, and communication systems are increasing the likelihood that computerized trading systems will be a viable marketing alternative.

Increased demand for U.S. farm exports—primarily food grains, feed grains, and oil crops—emerged as an important factor influencing food and agricultural research and education in the 1970s. Maintaining producers' revenue remained as a motivating force in agricultural research.

If all feeder cattle were identical and if all relative prices were constant the feedlot manager would still have an important and difficult decision to make. The decision involves selecting the time at which to replace a pen of cattle on feed with a new pen of feeder cattle such that profit is maximized, over time, to the feeding operation as a whole. Of course, all cattle are far from identical and prices, even relative prices, are never constant. The decision that is not simple with identical cattle and constant prices becomes most difficult with consideration of different types of replacement cattle and varying prices.

Price risk has been a major problem for cattle feeders during the 1970s. Since 1972, variability in cash cattle prices has increased dramatically as a result of volatility in the feed grain sector, the cyclical liquidation of cattle numbers which began in late 1973, and cyclical moves in hog prices. The increased levels of price risk have prompted increased interest in hedging.

The literature on hedging strategies for cattle feeding operations continues to grow. Results of early studies show hedging has the capacity to reduce risk in cattle feeding as measured by the variance of per head profits (Heifner; Holland, Purcell and Hague). More recent studies have developed and tested strategies which have the potential both to reduce price risk and increase profits. Selective hedging is typically employed. A mathematical model to predict cash price, sell-buy signals based on some technical trading system, or some other approach is used to select when the cash position should be hedged.

In recent months, several developments have prompted increased interest in the feedlot replacement decision. Among the more important are the high prices for feeder cattle and feed grains, the narrow (and often negative) profit margins confronting the feedlot manager and the increasingly apparent need to produce lean meat with maximum efficiency.

Much of the research in commodity hedging has concentrated upon the development of theoretical models describing the optimum position in cash and futures markets. Other studies have shown that the difference between current spot price and futures price represents the market price for storage, processing services, or both. The revenue stabilizing potential of futures markets for commodities with continuous as opposed to noncontinuous inventories has also received attention. However, very little work or literature is publicly available on how different hedging strategies actually would have performed for a particular commodity over time.

Morale and faculty development are closely related. The agricultural economics profession must decide what it is about. There is room to practice the principle of comparative advantage and allow a degree of specialization in teaching, extension, and research. To continue in the role of an applied discipline, there must also be an opportunity for the young professional to establish rapport with, and understanding of, the private sector and the policy-making arena. If that is to happen, there must be encouragement in the institutional setting and by faculty colleagues who respect the importance of investment in building rapport and in establishing credibility. If that environment is present, morale should be good and faculty development will occur.

The Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz (MALT90) survey aims to characterise the physical and chemical evolution of high-mass star-forming clumps. Exploiting the unique broad frequency range and on-the-fly mapping capabilities of the Australia Telescope National Facility Mopra 22 m single-dish telescope1 , MALT90 has obtained 3′ × 3′ maps towards ~2 000 dense molecular clumps identified in the ATLASGAL 870 μm Galactic plane survey. The clumps were selected to host the early stages of high-mass star formation and to span the complete range in their evolutionary states (from prestellar, to protostellar, and on to $\mathrm{H\,{\scriptstyle {II}}}$ regions and photodissociation regions). Because MALT90 mapped 16 lines simultaneously with excellent spatial (38 arcsec) and spectral (0.11 km s−1) resolution, the data reveal a wealth of information about the clumps’ morphologies, chemistry, and kinematics. In this paper we outline the survey strategy, observing mode, data reduction procedure, and highlight some early science results. All MALT90 raw and processed data products are available to the community. With its unprecedented large sample of clumps, MALT90 is the largest survey of its type ever conducted and an excellent resource for identifying interesting candidates for high-resolution studies with ALMA.