Past president's page: Benefiting through strategic alliances

Primer pla d'un edifici construït al s. XVIII sobre una petita parcel·la medieval. Consta de planta baixa i tres pisos i golfes. Té una cornisa ceràmica. La façana presenta uns esgrafiats geomètrics a base de grans faixes

Income statements "by nature" and analysis of company performance : an application of US airlines companies

Since September 11, 2001; and during the ensuing economic slowdown, U.S airline companies have experienced significant financial difficulties, including bankruptcies and near bankruptcies on the part of several major carriers. In an economic setting where U.S. airlines are struggling to achieve or maintain profitability, it is important for accountants, auditors and financial analysts to be able to analyze the relative performance of airline companies. In the airline industry, income statements are normally prepared "by nature" rather than "by function". This differs from the usual presentation found in the income statements of most American companies. This case demonstrates how to perform a comparative financial statement analysis when an income statement is prepared "by nature", by applying a tool called the "Statement of Intermediate Balances". The three companies studied in this case are United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlinesfinancial statement analysis; income statement format; income statement by nature; income statement by function; statement of intermediate balances

Lithium and oxygen adsorption at the b-MnO2 (110) surface

The adsorption and co-adsorption of lithium and oxygen at the surface of rutile-like manganese dioxide(b-MnO2), which are important in the context of Li–air batteries, are investigated using density functional theory. In the absence of lithium, the most stable surface of b-MnO2, the (110), adsorbs oxygen in the form of peroxo groups bridging between two manganese cations. Conversely, in the absence of excess oxygen, lithium atoms adsorb on the (110) surface at two different sites, which are both tricoordinated to surface oxygen anions, and the adsorption always involves the transfer of one electron from the adatom to one of the five-coordinated manganese cations at the surface, creating (formally) Li+ and Mn3+ species. The co-adsorption of lithium and oxygen leads to the formation of a surface oxide, involving the dissociation of the O2 molecule, where the O adatoms saturate the coordination of surface Mn cations and also bind to the Li adatoms. This process is energetically more favourable than the formation of gas-phase lithium peroxide (Li2O2) monomers, but less favourable than the formation of Li2O2 bulk. These results suggest that the presence of b-MnO2 in the cathode of a nonaqueous Li–O2 battery lowers the energy for the initial reduction of oxygen during cell discharge