Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Teaching Large Classes: Development and Evaluation of a Novel e-Resource in Cancer Biology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hejmadi, Momna V.

2007-01-01

This paper describes the development and evaluation of a blended learning resource in the biosciences, created by combining online learning with formal face-face lectures and supported by formative assessments. In order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching large classes with mixed student cohorts, teaching was delivered through…

A Comparative Assessment of Higher Education Financing in Six Arab Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El-Araby, Ashraf

2011-01-01

This study analyses the policies for financing higher education in six Arab countries: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia. It assesses the adequacy of spending on higher education, the efficiency with which resources are utilized, and the equity implications of resource allocations. Based on six detailed case studies, this…

Spatial database for a global assessment of undiscovered copper resources: Chapter Z in Global mineral resource assessment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dicken, Connie L.; Dunlap, Pamela; Parks, Heather L.; Hammarstrom, Jane M.; Zientek, Michael L.; Zientek, Michael L.; Hammarstrom, Jane M.; Johnson, Kathleen M.

2016-07-13

As part of the first-ever U.S. Geological Survey global assessment of undiscovered copper resources, data common to several regional spatial databases published by the U.S. Geological Survey, including one report from Finland and one from Greenland, were standardized, updated, and compiled into a global copper resource database. This integrated collection of spatial databases provides location, geologic and mineral resource data, and source references for deposits, significant prospects, and areas permissive for undiscovered deposits of both porphyry copper and sediment-hosted copper. The copper resource database allows for efficient modeling on a global scale in a geographic information system (GIS) and is provided in an Esri ArcGIS file geodatabase format.

Do different case-mix measures affect assessments of provider efficiency? Lessons from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

PubMed

Rosen, Amy K; Loveland, Susan A; Rakovski, Carter C; Christiansen, Cindy L; Berlowitz, Dan R

2003-01-01

Although case-mix adjustment is critical for provider profiling, little is known regarding whether different case-mix measures affect assessments of provider efficiency. We examine whether two case-mix measures, Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACGs) and Diagnostic Cost Groups (DCGs), result in different assessments of efficiency across service networks within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Three profiling indicators examine variation in resource use. Although results from the ACGs and DCGs generally agree on which networks have greater or lesser efficiency than average, assessments of individual network efficiency vary depending upon the case-mix measure used. This suggests that caution should be used so that providers are not misclassified based on reported efficiency.

Evaluation on equality and efficiency of health resources allocation and health services utilization in China.

PubMed

Sun, Jian; Luo, Hongye

2017-07-14

China is faced with a daunting challenge to equality and efficiency in health resources allocation and health services utilization in the context of rapid economic growth. This study sought to evaluate the equality and efficiency of health resources allocation and health services utilization in China. Demographic, economic, and geographic area data was sourced from China Statistical Yearbook 2012-2016. Data related to health resources and health services was obtained from China Health Statistics Yearbook 2012-2016. Furthermore, we evaluated the equality of health resources allocation based on Gini coefficient. Concentration index was used to measure the equality in utilization of health services. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was employed to assess the efficiency of health resources allocation. From 2011 to 2015, the Gini coefficients for health resources by population ranged between 0.0644 and 0.1879, while the Gini coefficients for the resources by geographic area ranged from 0.6136 to 0.6568. Meanwhile, the concentration index values for health services utilization ranged from -0.0392 to 0.2110. Moreover, in 2015, 10 provinces (32.26%) were relatively efficient in terms of health resources allocation, while 7 provinces (22.58%) and 14 provinces (45.16%) were weakly efficient and inefficient, respectively. There exist distinct regional disparities in the distribution of health resources in China, which are mainly reflected in the geographic distribution of health resources. Furthermore, the people living in the eastern developed areas are more likely to use outpatient care, while the people living in western underdeveloped areas are more likely to use inpatient care. Moreover, the efficiency of health resources allocation in 21 provinces (67.74%) of China was low and needs to be improved. Thus, the government should pay more attention to the equality based on geographic area, guide patients to choose medical treatment rationally, and optimize the resource investments for different provinces.

Assessing Agricultural Intensification Strategies with a Sustainable Agriculture Matrix

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, X.; Davidson, E. A.

2017-12-01

To meet the growing global demand for food and bioenergy, agricultural production must nearly double by 2050, placing additional pressures on the environment and the society. Thus, how to efficiently use limited land, water, and nutrient resources to produce more food with low pollution (MoFoLoPo) is clearly one of the major challenges of this century. The increasingly interconnected global market provides a great opportunity for reallocating crop production to the countries and regions that use natural resources more efficiently. For example, it is estimated that optimizing the allocation of crop production around the world can mitigate 41% of nitrogen lost to the environment. However, higher efficiency in nutrients use does not necessarily lead to higher efficiency in land use or water use. In addition, the increasing share of international trade in food supply may introduce additional systemic risk and affect the resilience of global food system. Using the data/indicator from a Sustainable Agriculture Matrix and an international trade matrix, we developed a simple model to assess the trade-offs of international trade considering resource use efficiencies (including water, land, nitrogen, and phosphorus), economic costs and benefits, and the resilience of food system.

Assessing efficiency of software production for NASA-SEL data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vonmayrhauser, Anneliese; Roeseler, Armin

1993-01-01

This paper uses production models to identify and quantify efficient allocation of resources and key drivers of software productivity for project data in the NASA-SEL database. While analysis allows identification of efficient projects, many of the metrics that could have provided a more detailed analysis are not at a level of measurement to allow production model analysis. Production models must be used with proper parameterization to be successful. This may mean a new look at which metrics are helpful for efficiency assessment.

MOLECULAR GENETIC TOOLS FOR ASSESSING THE STATUS AND VULNERABILITY OF AQUATIC RESOURCES

EPA Science Inventory

Development of ecological indicators that efficiently capture the present condition and project future vulnerabilities of biological resources is critical to sound environmental management. For this reason, the ORD's Ecological Research Program is developing genetic methodologies...

Do international rotations make surgical residents more resource-efficient? A preliminary study.

PubMed

Oliphant, Jason L; Ruhlandt, Ronell R; Sherman, Stanley R; Schlatter, Marc G; Green, Joel A

2012-01-01

Interest in international surgery among general surgery residents in the United States has been shown in several publications. Several general surgery residency programs have reported their experiences with international surgery rotations (ISRs). Learning to use limited resources more efficiently is often cited as a benefit of such rotations. We hypothesized that general surgery residents become more resource efficient after they have completed an ISR. Laboratory, radiologic, and diagnostic studies ordered on 2900 patients by 21 general surgery residents over 65 months at a single institution were analyzed retrospectively. The patient populations they wrote orders on were assessed for similarity in age, gender, and diagnoses. The outcomes in those patient populations were assessed by duration of stay and in-hospital mortality. Six (29%) of these residents (ISR residents) completed a 1-month ISR during their third year of residency. Their orders were compared with their classmates who did not participate in an ISR (NISR residents). The results were compared between the 2 cohorts from both before and after their international rotations. An analysis focused on comparing the changes from pre-ISR to post-ISR. A survey was also sent after objective data were collected to all residents and alumni involved in the study to assess their subjective perception of changes in their resource efficiency and to characterize their ISRs. Patient populations were similar in terms of demographics and diagnoses. ISR residents generated an average of $122 less in orders per patient per month after their ISR compared with before. NISR residents generated an average of $338 more in orders per patient per month after the ISRs compared with before (p = 0.04). Pre-ISR order charges were statistically similar. Similar results were observed when radiologic/diagnostic study orders were analyzed independently. Differences in outcomes were statistically insignificant. The survey revealed that most of the ISR residents perceived that their attitude toward ordering tests and laboratories was influenced greatly by their ISR, and all the ISR residents perceived that they became more resource efficient than their peers after their ISRs. These preliminary findings seem to indicate increased resource efficiency among general surgery residents who completed an ISR. However, the sample size of residents was small, and we could not establish conclusively a causal relationship to their ISRs. A more extensive study is needed if reliable conclusions are to be drawn regarding the effect of ISRs on the resource efficiency of residents. Copyright © 2012 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

2010 Northwest Federal Market Assessment Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Scanlon, Tim; Sandusky, William F.

The primary intent of this market assessment is to provide insights on the effectiveness of current energy efficiency and renewable energy program offerings available to Federal sites in the region. The level of detail, quality and currency of the data used in this market assessment varies significantly by Federal agency and energy efficiency service provider. Limited access to some Federal sites, limited availability of key points of contact, time/resource constraints, and other considerations limited the total number of Federal agencies and energy efficiency service providers participating in the survey.

77 FR 48131 - Draft Finding of No Significant Impact and Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-13

... consumption of freshwater resources and returning water back to the same watershed so as not to deplete the groundwater and surface water resources of that region in quantity or quality; and (3) Reducing, reusing, and... and behavior as well as multiple possible projects and technologies to enhance resource efficiency...

Governance of preventive Health Intervention and On time Verification of its Efficiency: the GIOVE Study

PubMed Central

Baio, Gianluca; Montagano, Giuseppe; Cauzillo, Gabriella; Locuratolo, Francesco; Becce, Gerardo; Gitto, Lara; Marcellusi, Andrea; Zweifel, Peter; Capone, Alessandro; Favato, Giampiero

2012-01-01

Objectives The GIOVE Study was aimed to the achievement of allocative efficiency of the budget allocated to the prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV)-induced diseases. An ex-ante determination of the most efficient allocation of resources between screening and multicohort quadrivalent immunisation programmes was followed by the ex-post assessment of the allocative efficiency actually achieved after a 12-month period. Design A bound optimisation model was developed to determine the ex-ante allocative efficiency of resources. The alternatives compared were the screening programme alone and the quadrivalent immunisation with access to screening. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to assess the uncertainty associated with the main inputs of the model. Subsequently, a cohort of girls with a complete recorded vaccination history were enrolled in an observational retrospective study for 18 months to ensure full compliance with the recommended schedule of vaccination (0, 2, 6 months) within a 12-month time horizon. Setting Basilicata region, in the south of Italy. Participants 12 848 girls aged 12, 15, 18 or 25 years. Intervention Immunisation with quadrivalent anti-HPV vaccine. Outcome measures The vaccination coverage rate was considered to be the indicator of the best achievable benefit, given the budgetary constraints. Results Assuming a vaccine price of €100 per dose, a vaccination coverage rate of 59.6% was required for the most effective allocation of resources. The optimal rate of coverage was initially in favour of the multicohort strategy of vaccination against HPV (72.8%±2%). When the price paid for the quadrivalent vaccine dropped to €85 per dose, the most efficient coverage rate (69.5%) shifted closer to the immunisation rate actually achieved during the 12-month observation period. Conclusions The bound optimisation model demonstrated to be a useful approach to the ex-ante allocation and the ex-post assessment of the resources allocated to the implementation of a multicohort quadrivalent anti-HPV vaccination programme. PMID:22422918

Land use efficiency: anticipating future demand for land-sector greenhouse gas emissions abatement and managing trade-offs with agriculture, water, and biodiversity.

PubMed

Bryan, Brett A; Crossman, Neville D; Nolan, Martin; Li, Jing; Navarro, Javier; Connor, Jeffery D

2015-11-01

Competition for land is increasing, and policy needs to ensure the efficient supply of multiple ecosystem services from land systems. We modelled the spatially explicit potential future supply of ecosystem services in Australia's intensive agricultural land in response to carbon markets under four global outlooks from 2013 to 2050. We assessed the productive efficiency of greenhouse gas emissions abatement, agricultural production, water resources, and biodiversity services and compared these to production possibility frontiers (PPFs). While interacting commodity markets and carbon markets produced efficient outcomes for agricultural production and emissions abatement, more efficient outcomes were possible for water resources and biodiversity services due to weak price signals. However, when only two objectives were considered as per typical efficiency assessments, efficiency improvements involved significant unintended trade-offs for the other objectives and incurred substantial opportunity costs. Considering multiple objectives simultaneously enabled the identification of land use arrangements that were efficient over multiple ecosystem services. Efficient land use arrangements could be selected that meet society's preferences for ecosystem service provision from land by adjusting the metric used to combine multiple services. To effectively manage competition for land via land use efficiency, market incentives are needed that effectively price multiple ecosystem services. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Simulation model for assessing the efficiency of a combined power installation based on a geothermal heat pump and a vacuum solar collector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vaysman, Ya I.; Surkov, AA; Surkova, Yu I.; Kychkin, AV

2017-06-01

The article is devoted to the use of renewable energy sources and the assessment of the feasibility of their use in the climatic conditions of the Western Urals. A simulation model that calculates the efficiency of a combined power installations (CPI) was (RES) developed. The CPI consists of the geothermal heat pump (GHP) and the vacuum solar collector (VCS) and is based on the research model. This model allows solving a wide range of problems in the field of energy and resource efficiency, and can be applied to other objects using RES. Based on the research recommendations for optimizing the management and the application of CPI were given. The optimization system will give a positive effect in the energy and resource consumption of low-rise residential buildings projects.

An effective and efficient assessment process

Treesearch

Russell T. Graham; Theresa B. Jain

1999-01-01

Depending on the agency, discipline, or audience, assessments supply data and information to address relevant policy questions and to help make decisions. If properly executed, assessment processes can draw conclusions and make recommendations on how to manage natural resources. Assessments, especially large ones, can be easily influenced by internal and external...

Managing for efficiency in health care: the case of Greek public hospitals.

PubMed

Mitropoulos, Panagiotis; Mitropoulos, Ioannis; Sissouras, Aris

2013-12-01

This paper evaluates the efficiency of public hospitals with two alternative conceptual models. One model targets resource usage directly to assess production efficiency, while the other model incorporates financial results to assess economic efficiency. Performance analysis of these models was conducted in two stages. In stage one, we utilized data envelopment analysis to obtain the efficiency score of each hospital, while in stage two we took into account the influence of the operational environment on efficiency by regressing those scores on explanatory variables that concern the performance of hospital services. We applied these methods to evaluate 96 general hospitals in the Greek national health system. The results indicate that, although the average efficiency scores in both models have remained relatively stable compared to past assessments, internal changes in hospital performances do exist. This study provides a clear framework for policy implications to increase the overall efficiency of general hospitals.

Application of the WEAP model in strategic environmental assessment: Experiences from a case study in an arid/semi-arid area in China.

PubMed

Gao, Jingjing; Christensen, Per; Li, Wei

2017-08-01

This article investigated how the use of a water resources assessment model contributed to one of the first strategic environmental assessments (SEA) conducted for arid/semi-arid regions in China. The study was based on the SEA of a coal industry development plan in Ordos, an arid/semi-arid region of northwest China, where a temporally and spatially simplified version of the WEAP (Water Evaluation And Planning System) model was applied for assessing the impact of the planned activities on local water resource system. Four scenarios were developed to simulate various alternatives using a diverse range of water utilisation measures such as irrigation efficiency, treatment and the reuse of water. The WEAP model itself was found to be a useful tool for efficient water resources assessment in SEA: 1) WEAP provides built-in simulation modules for water assessment, which improve the SEA's efficiency significantly; 2) WEAP temporally has the flexibility in both delivering information on a reasonably aggregated level by evaluating water resource on an annual time step, which fits most SEA cases, and being possible to take a finer time step analysis monthly, weekly even daily; 3) Spatially, WEAP has advantage in dealing with distributed demand sites in large spatial scale. However, although WEAP appears as a useful tool in providing support for decision-making, in this SEA case we experienced difficulty in building a feasible scenario to mitigate the impact of the proposed activities on the local water system, so that solution had to be found outside of the assessed scenarios - which led to the discussion on the fact that the proposed activities in SEA cases are rarely regarded as an uncertainty. Therefore future research on the scope of SEA scenarios could be valuable. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technical efficiency and resources allocation in university hospitals in Tehran, 2009-2012.

PubMed

Rezapour, Aziz; Ebadifard Azar, Farbod; Yousef Zadeh, Negar; Roumiani, YarAllah; Bagheri Faradonbeh, Saeed

2015-01-01

Assessment of hospitals' performance in achieving its goals is a basic necessity. Measuring the efficiency of hospitals in order to boost resource productivity in healthcare organizations is extremely important. The aim of this study was to measure technical efficiency and determining status of resource allocation in some university hospitals, in Tehran, Iran. This study was conducted in 2012; the research population consisted of all hospitals affiliated to Iran and Tehran medical sciences universities of. Required data, such as human and capital resources information and also production variables (hospital outputs) were collected from data centers of studied hospitals. Data were analyzed using data envelopment analysis (DEA) method, Deap2,1 software; and the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) method, Frontier 4,1 software. According to DEA method, average of technical, management (pure) and scale efficiency of the studied hospitals during the study period were calculated 0.87, 0.971, and 0.907, respectively. All kinds of efficiency did not follow a fixed trend over the study time and were constantly changing. In the stochastic frontier's production function analysis, the technical efficiency of the studied industry during the study period was estimated to be 0.389. This study represented hospitals with the highest and lowest efficiency. Reference hospitals (more efficient states) were indicated for the inefficient centers. According to the findings, it was found that in the hospitals that do not operate efficiently, there is a capacity to improve the technical efficiency by removing excess inputs without changes in the level of outputs. However, by the optimal allocation of resources in most studied hospitals, very important economy of scale can be achieved.

Technical efficiency and resources allocation in university hospitals in Tehran, 2009-2012

PubMed Central

Rezapour, Aziz; Ebadifard Azar, Farbod; Yousef Zadeh, Negar; Roumiani, YarAllah; Bagheri Faradonbeh, Saeed

2015-01-01

Background: Assessment of hospitals’ performance in achieving its goals is a basic necessity. Measuring the efficiency of hospitals in order to boost resource productivity in healthcare organizations is extremely important. The aim of this study was to measure technical efficiency and determining status of resource allocation in some university hospitals, in Tehran, Iran. Methods: This study was conducted in 2012; the research population consisted of all hospitals affiliated to Iran and Tehran medical sciences universities of. Required data, such as human and capital resources information and also production variables (hospital outputs) were collected from data centers of studied hospitals. Data were analyzed using data envelopment analysis (DEA) method, Deap2,1 software; and the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) method, Frontier 4,1 software. Results: According to DEA method, average of technical, management (pure) and scale efficiency of the studied hospitals during the study period were calculated 0.87, 0.971, and 0.907, respectively. All kinds of efficiency did not follow a fixed trend over the study time and were constantly changing. In the stochastic frontier's production function analysis, the technical efficiency of the studied industry during the study period was estimated to be 0.389. Conclusion: This study represented hospitals with the highest and lowest efficiency. Reference hospitals (more efficient states) were indicated for the inefficient centers. According to the findings, it was found that in the hospitals that do not operate efficiently, there is a capacity to improve the technical efficiency by removing excess inputs without changes in the level of outputs. However, by the optimal allocation of resources in most studied hospitals, very important economy of scale can be achieved. PMID:26793657

Assessment and comparison of three high-aluminum fly ash utilization scenarios in Inner Mongolia, China using an eco-efficiency indicator.

PubMed

Yang, Shuo; Lin, Ling; Li, Shao Peng; Li, Qiang; Wang, Xiu Teng; Sun, Liang

2017-05-01

Utilization of fly ash is of great importance in China in the context of resource and environmental crises. Different fly ash utilization processes are proposed, and some have been practically applied. However, none of these fly ash utilization pathways has been evaluated comprehensively by integrating both environmental and economic perspectives. In this study, three high-aluminum fly ash utilization methods in Mongolia were assessed and compared based on the concept of eco-efficiency. The environmental assessment was conducted in accordance with life-cycle assessment principles, and a monetization-weighting approach was applied to obtain social willingness-to-pay as a reflection of environmental impact. The environmental assessment results revealed that the reuse of fly ash had significant advantage for saving primary resource, while solid waste, depletion of water, and global warming were the three highest environmental impacts from the life cycle perspective. The economic performance assessment showed positive net profits for fly ash utilization, but high value-added products were not necessarily indicative of better economic performance due to the relatively high operation cost. Comparison of the eco-efficiency indicators (EEIs) implied that the process of scenario 1#, which produced mullite ceramic and active calcium silicate, was the most recommended out of the three scenarios on the present scale. This judgment was consistent with the evaluation of the resource utilization rate. The present study showed that the EEI could be used to compare different fly ash utilization processes in a comprehensive and objective manner, thus providing definitive and insightful suggestions for decision-making and technical improvement.

A System of Systems (SoS) Approach to Sustainable Energy Planning in MENA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahlooji, Maral; Ristic, Bora; Price, Katherine; Madani, Kaveh

2016-04-01

The global issue of climate change has put pressure on governments to de-carbonise their energy portfolios by transitioning from the dominant use of fossil fuels energy to extensive use of renewable energies. The lack of renewable energy laws and credible targets and valid roadmaps for energy policies within the MENA region has let to ambitious and unrealistic renewable targets, where countries such as Djibouti and Morocco are aiming for 100% and 42% renewables respectively, by 2020, while Kuwait and Qatar are only aiming for 5% and 6% respectively. Nevertheless, this demonstrates the commitment and desirability of the members of the MENA region on increasing their share of renewables in their energy mix to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the region and minimise the unintended impacts of energy technologies on major natural resources through use of cost efficient technologies. The Relative Aggregate Footprint (RAF) of energy sources among the member states of the MENA region is assessed by applying the "System of Systems (SoS) Approach to Energy Sustainability Assessment" (Hadian and Madani, 2015). RAF demonstrates the efficiency of the overall resource-use of energy resources through creating a trade-off between carbon footprint, land footprint, water footprint, and economic cost. Using the resource availability of each member states, weights are assigned to the four criteria. This allows the evaluation of the desirability of energy sources with respect to regional resource availability and therefore, the efficiency of the overall resource-use of the energy portfolio of the MENA region is determined. This study has recognised the need for reform and radical changes within the MENA region's energy profile to make a significant contribution to the reduction of carbon emissions in order to use the resources in a sustainable way and increase the regional energy security of the member states across MENA. Reference: Hadian S, Madani K (2015) A System of Systems Approach to Energy Sustainability Assessment: Are All Renewables Really Green? Ecological Indicators, 52, 194-206.

Threshold considerations in fair allocation of health resources: justice beyond scarcity.

PubMed

Alvarez, Allen Andrew A

2007-10-01

Application of egalitarian and prioritarian accounts of health resource allocation in low-income countries have both been criticized for implying distribution outcomes that allow decreasing/undermining health gains and for tolerating unacceptable standards of health care and health status that result from such allocation schemes. Insufficient health care and severe deprivation of health resources are difficult to accept even when justified by aggregative efficiency or legitimized by fair deliberative process in pursuing equality and priority oriented outcomes. I affirm the sufficientarian argument that, given extreme scarcity of public health resources in low-income countries, neither health status equality between populations nor priority for the worse off is normatively adequate. Nevertheless, the threshold norm alone need not be the sole consideration when a country's total health budget is extremely scarce. Threshold considerations are necessary in developing a theory of fair distribution of health resources that is sensitive to the lexically prior norm of sufficiency. Based on the intuition that shares must not be taken away from those who barely achieve a minimal level of health, I argue that assessments based on standards of minimal physical/mental health must be developed to evaluate the sufficiency of the total resources of health systems in low-income countries prior to pursuing equality, priority, and efficiency based resource allocation. I also begin to examine how threshold sensitive health resource assessment could be used in the Philippines.

Joint carbon footprint assessment and data envelopment analysis for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture production.

PubMed

Rebolledo-Leiva, Ricardo; Angulo-Meza, Lidia; Iriarte, Alfredo; González-Araya, Marcela C

2017-09-01

Operations management tools are critical in the process of evaluating and implementing action towards a low carbon production. Currently, a sustainable production implies both an efficient resource use and the obligation to meet targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The carbon footprint (CF) tool allows estimating the overall amount of GHG emissions associated with a product or activity throughout its life cycle. In this paper, we propose a four-step method for a joint use of CF assessment and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Following the eco-efficiency definition, which is the delivery of goods using fewer resources and with decreasing environmental impact, we use an output oriented DEA model to maximize production and reduce CF, taking into account simultaneously the economic and ecological perspectives. In another step, we stablish targets for the contributing CF factors in order to achieve CF reduction. The proposed method was applied to assess the eco-efficiency of five organic blueberry orchards throughout three growing seasons. The results show that this method is a practical tool for determining eco-efficiency and reducing GHG emissions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Path to Successful ERP Implementation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swartz, David G.

2001-01-01

Examines how universities and colleges can economically and efficiently implement an enterprise resource planning project when designing their administrative information system. Administrative steps discussed include conducting a needs assessment, deciding on the right system that matches the assessment, developing the correct contracting…

Environmental impact efficiency of natural gas combined cycle power plants: A combined life cycle assessment and dynamic data envelopment analysis approach.

PubMed

Martín-Gamboa, Mario; Iribarren, Diego; Dufour, Javier

2018-02-15

The energy sector is still dominated by the use of fossil resources. In particular, natural gas represents the third most consumed resource, being a significant source of electricity in many countries. Since electricity production in natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants provides some benefits with respect to other non-renewable technologies, it is often seen as a transitional solution towards a future low‑carbon power generation system. However, given the environmental profile and operational variability of NGCC power plants, their eco-efficiency assessment is required. In this respect, this article uses a novel combined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and dynamic Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach in order to estimate -over the period 2010-2015- the environmental impact efficiencies of 20 NGCC power plants located in Spain. A three-step LCA+DEA method is applied, which involves data acquisition, calculation of environmental impacts through LCA, and the novel estimation of environmental impact efficiency (overall- and term-efficiency scores) through dynamic DEA. Although only 1 out of 20 NGCC power plants is found to be environmentally efficient, all plants show a relatively good environmental performance with overall eco-efficiency scores above 60%. Regarding individual periods, 2011 was -on average- the year with the highest environmental impact efficiency (95%), accounting for 5 efficient NGCC plants. In this respect, a link between high number of operating hours and high environmental impact efficiency is observed. Finally, preliminary environmental benchmarks are presented as an additional outcome in order to further support decision-makers in the path towards eco-efficiency in NGCC power plants. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Comparative Assessment of Greek Universities' Efficiency Using Quantitative Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katharaki, Maria; Katharakis, George

2010-01-01

In part due to the increased demand for higher education, typical evaluation frameworks for universities often address the key issue of available resource utilisation. This study seeks to estimate the efficiency of 20 public universities in Greece through quantitative analysis (including performance indicators, data envelopment analysis (DEA) and…

A Comparative Analysis of the Efficiency of National Education Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thieme, Claudio; Gimenez, Victor; Prior, Diego

2012-01-01

The present study assesses the performance of 54 participating countries in PISA 2006. It employs efficiency indicators that relate result variables with resource variables used in the production of educational services. Desirable outputs of educational achievement and undesirable outputs of educational inequality are considered jointly as result…

CO2 sequestration: Storage capacity guideline needed

USGS Publications Warehouse

Frailey, S.M.; Finley, R.J.; Hickman, T.S.

2006-01-01

Petroleum reserves are classified for the assessment of available supplies by governmental agencies, management of business processes for achieving exploration and production efficiency, and documentation of the value of reserves and resources in financial statements. Up to the present however, the storage capacity determinations made by some organizations in the initial CO2 resource assessment are incorrect technically. New publications should thus cover differences in mineral adsorption of CO2 and dissolution of CO2 in various brine waters.

Effect of vertical integration on the utilization of hardwood resources

Treesearch

Jan Wiedenbeck

2002-01-01

The effectiveness of vertical integration in promoting the efficient utilization of the hardwood resource in the eastern United States was assessed during a series of interviews with vertically integrated hardwood manufacturers in the Appalachian region. Data from 19 companies that responded to the 1996 phone survey indicate that: 1) vertically integrated hardwood...

Plant disease severity assessment - How rater bias, assessment method and experimental design affect hypothesis testing and resource use efficiency

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The impact of rater bias and assessment method on hypothesis testing was studied for different experimental designs for plant disease assessment using balanced and unbalanced data sets. Data sets with the same number of replicate estimates for each of two treatments are termed ‘balanced’, and those ...

Electronic Assessment Issues and Practices in Pakistan: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sangi, Nazir A.

2008-01-01

Electronic assessment (e-assessment) methods are at an early stage of development at various levels of education in South East Asian region. Until the primary resource requirements of the various educational institutions have been met in terms of providing an effective and efficient e-assessment system, a range of problems will arise for the…

Energy Smart Colorado, Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gitchell, John M.; Palmer, Adam L.

2014-03-31

Energy Smart Colorado is an energy efficiency program established in 2011 in the central mountain region of Colorado. The program was funded through a grant of $4.9 million, awarded in August 2010 by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Program. As primary grant recipient, Eagle County coordinated program activities, managed the budget, and reported results. Eagle County staff worked closely with local community education and outreach partner Eagle Valley Alliance for Sustainability (now Walking Mountains Science Center) to engage residents in the program. Sub-recipients Pitkin County and Gunnison County assigned local implementation of the program in their regions tomore » their respective community efficiency organizations, Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) in Pitkin County, and Office for Resource Efficiency (ORE) in Gunnison County. Utility partners contributed $166,600 to support Home Energy Assessments for their customers. Program staff opened Energy Resource Centers, engaged a network of qualified contractors, developed a work-flow, an enrollment website, a loan program, and a data management system to track results.« less

Seasonal and within-canopy variation in shoot-scale resource-use efficiency trade-offs in a Norway spruce stand.

PubMed

Tarvainen, Lasse; Räntfors, Mats; Wallin, Göran

2015-11-01

Previous leaf-scale studies of carbon assimilation describe short-term resource-use efficiency (RUE) trade-offs where high use efficiency of one resource requires low RUE of another. However, varying resource availabilities may cause long-term RUE trade-offs to differ from the short-term patterns. This may have important implications for understanding canopy-scale resource use and allocation. We used continuous gas exchange measurements collected at five levels within a Norway spruce, Picea abies (L.) karst., canopy over 3 years to assess seasonal differences in the interactions between shoot-scale resource availability (light, water and nitrogen), net photosynthesis (An ) and the use efficiencies of light (LUE), water (WUE) and nitrogen (NUE) for carbon assimilation. The continuous data set was used to develop and evaluate multiple regression models for predicting monthly shoot-scale An . These models showed that shoot-scale An was strongly dependent on light availability and was generally well described with simple one- or two-parameter models. WUE peaked in spring, NUE in summer and LUE in autumn. However, the relative importance of LUE for carbon assimilation increased with canopy depth at all times. Our results suggest that accounting for seasonal and within-canopy trade-offs may be important for RUE-based modelling of canopy carbon uptake. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Coordinating ecological risk assessment with natural resource damage assessment: A panel discussion.

PubMed

Sanders, Brenda; Ammann, Mike; Hoff, Rebecca; Huston, Mark; Jenkins, Kenneth; Palagyi, Tony; Pelto, Karen; Rettig, Todd; Wagner, Anne

2016-10-01

Contaminated sites in the United States undergo remediation and restoration through regulatory programs that lead the 2 processes through independent but often parallel pathways with different objectives. The objective of remediation is to reduce risk to human health and the environment, whereas that of restoration is to restore injured resources and compensate the public for lost use of the services that natural resources provide. More complex sites, such as those associated with large river systems and urban waterways, have resulted in increasingly larger-scale ecological risk assessments (ERAs) and natural resource damage assessments (NRDAs) that take many years and involve diverse practitioners including scientists, economists, and engineers. Substantial levels of effort are now frequently required, creating a need for more efficient and cost-effective approaches to data collection, analyses, and assessments. Because there are commonalities in the data needs between ERAs and NRDAs, coordination of the design and implementation of site-specific studies that meet the needs of both programs could result in increased efficiency and lower costs. The Association for Environmental Health and Sciences Foundation convened a panel of environmental practitioners from industry, consulting, and regulatory bodies to examine the benefits and challenges associated with coordinating ERA and NRDA activities in the context of a broad range of regulatory programs. This brief communication presents the opinions and conclusions of the panelists on these issues and reports 2 case studies for which coordinated ERA and NRDA activities produced a positive outcome. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2016;12:616-621. © 2015 SETAC. © 2015 SETAC.

Comparison of Overall Resource Consumption of Biosolids Management System Processes Using Exergetic Life Cycle Assessment.

PubMed

Alanya, Sevda; Dewulf, Jo; Duran, Metin

2015-08-18

This study focused on the evaluation of biosolids management systems (BMS) from a natural resource consumption point of view. Additionally, the environmental impact of the facilities was benchmarked using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to provide a comprehensive assessment. This is the first study to apply a Cumulative Exergy Extraction from the Natural Environment (CEENE) method for an in-depth resource use assessment of BMS where two full-scale BMS and seven system variations were analyzed. CEENE allows better system evaluation and understanding of how much benefit is achievable from the products generated by BMS, which have valorization potential. LCA results showed that environmental burden is mostly from the intense electricity consumption. The CEENE analysis further revealed that the environmental burden is due to the high consumption of fossil and nuclear-based natural resources. Using Cumulative Degree of Perfection, higher resource-use efficiency, 53%, was observed in the PTA-2 where alkaline stabilization rather than anaerobic digestion is employed. However, an anaerobic digestion process is favorable over alkaline stabilization, with 35% lower overall natural resource use. The most significant reduction of the resource footprint occurred when the output biogas was valorized in a combined heat and power system.

Evaluating nanotechnology opportunities and risks through integration of life-cycle and risk assessment.

PubMed

Tsang, Michael P; Kikuchi-Uehara, Emi; Sonnemann, Guido W; Aymonier, Cyril; Hirao, Masahiko

2017-08-04

It has been some 15 years since the topics of sustainability and nanotechnologies first appeared together in the scientific literature and became a focus of organizations' research and policy developments. On the one hand, this focus is directed towards approaches and tools for risk assessment and management and on the other hand towards life-cycle thinking and assessment. Comparable to their application for regular chemicals, each tool is seen to serve separate objectives as it relates to evaluating nanotechnologies' safety or resource efficiency, respectively. While nanomaterials may provide resource efficient production and consumption, this must balance any potential hazards they pose across their life-cycles. This Perspective advocates for integrating these two tools at the methodological level for achieving this objective, and it explains what advantages and challenges this offers decision-makers while highlighting what research is needed to further enhance integration.

Effects of adjusting cropping systems on utilization efficiency of climatic resources in Northeast China under future climate scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Jianping; Zhao, Junfang; Xu, Yanhong; Chu, Zheng; Mu, Jia; Zhao, Qian

Quantitatively evaluating the effects of adjusting cropping systems on the utilization efficiency of climatic resources under climate change is an important task for assessing food security in China. To understand these effects, we used daily climate variables obtained from the regional climate model RegCM3 from 1981 to 2100 under the A1B scenario and crop observations from 53 agro-meteorological experimental stations from 1981 to 2010 in Northeast China. Three one-grade zones of cropping systems were divided by heat, water, topography and crop-type, including the semi-arid areas of the northeast and northwest (III), the one crop area of warm-cool plants in semi-humid plain or hilly regions of the northeast (IV), and the two crop area in irrigated farmland in the Huanghuaihai Plain (VI). An agro-ecological zone model was used to calculate climatic potential productivities. The effects of adjusting cropping systems on climate resource utilization in Northeast China under the A1B scenario were assessed. The results indicated that from 1981 to 2100 in the III, IV and VI areas, the planting boundaries of different cropping systems in Northeast China obviously shifted toward the north and the east based on comprehensively considering the heat and precipitation resources. However, due to high temperature stress, the climatic potential productivity of spring maize was reduced in the future. Therefore, adjusting the cropping system is an effective way to improve the climatic potential productivity and climate resource utilization. Replacing the one crop in one year model (spring maize) by the two crops in one year model (winter wheat and summer maize) significantly increased the total climatic potential productivity and average utilization efficiencies. During the periods of 2011-2040, 2041-2070 and 2071-2100, the average total climatic potential productivities of winter wheat and summer maize increased by 9.36%, 11.88% and 12.13% compared to that of spring maize, respectively. Additionally, compared with spring maize, the average utilization efficiencies of thermal resources of winter wheat and summer maize dramatically increased by 9.2%, 12.1% and 12.0%, respectively. The increases in the average utilization efficiencies of precipitation resources of winter wheat and summer maize were 1.78 kg hm-2 mm-1, 2.07 kg hm-2 mm-1 and 1.92 kg hm-2 mm-1 during 2011-2040, 2041-2070 and 2071-2100, respectively. Our findings highlight that adjusting cropping systems can dominantly contribute to utilization efficiency increases of agricultural climatic resources in Northeast China in the future.

Urban water metabolism efficiency assessment: integrated analysis of available and virtual water.

PubMed

Huang, Chu-Long; Vause, Jonathan; Ma, Hwong-Wen; Yu, Chang-Ping

2013-05-01

Resolving the complex environmental problems of water pollution and shortage which occur during urbanization requires the systematic assessment of urban water metabolism efficiency (WME). While previous research has tended to focus on either available or virtual water metabolism, here we argue that the systematic problems arising during urbanization require an integrated assessment of available and virtual WME, using an indicator system based on material flow analysis (MFA) results. Future research should focus on the following areas: 1) analysis of available and virtual water flow patterns and processes through urban districts in different urbanization phases in years with varying amounts of rainfall, and their environmental effects; 2) based on the optimization of social, economic and environmental benefits, establishment of an indicator system for urban WME assessment using MFA results; 3) integrated assessment of available and virtual WME in districts with different urbanization levels, to facilitate study of the interactions between the natural and social water cycles; 4) analysis of mechanisms driving differences in WME between districts with different urbanization levels, and the selection of dominant social and economic driving indicators, especially those impacting water resource consumption. Combinations of these driving indicators could then be used to design efficient water resource metabolism solutions, and integrated management policies for reduced water consumption. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Filter Media Tests Under Simulated Martian Atmospheric Conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Agui, Juan H.

2016-01-01

Human exploration of Mars will require the optimal utilization of planetary resources. One of its abundant resources is the Martian atmosphere that can be harvested through filtration and chemical processes that purify and separate it into its gaseous and elemental constituents. Effective filtration needs to be part of the suite of resource utilization technologies. A unique testing platform is being used which provides the relevant operational and instrumental capabilities to test articles under the proper simulated Martian conditions. A series of tests were conducted to assess the performance of filter media. Light sheet imaging of the particle flow provided a means of detecting and quantifying particle concentrations to determine capturing efficiencies. The media's efficiency was also evaluated by gravimetric means through a by-layer filter media configuration. These tests will help to establish techniques and methods for measuring capturing efficiency and arrestance of conventional fibrous filter media. This paper will describe initial test results on different filter media.

Efficiency and hospital effectiveness in improving Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems ratings.

PubMed

Al-Amin, Mona; Makarem, Suzanne C; Rosko, Michael

2016-01-01

Efficiency has emerged as a central goal to the operations of health care organizations. There are two competing perspectives on the relationship between efficiency and organizational performance. Some argue that organizational slack is a waste and that efficiency contributes to organizational performance, whereas others maintain that slack acts as a buffer, allowing organizations to adapt to environmental demands and contributing to organizational performance. As value-based purchasing becomes more prevalent, health care organizations are incented to become more efficient and, at the same time, improve their patients' experiences and outcomes. Unused slack resources might facilitate the timely implementation of these improvements. Building on previous research on organizational slack and inertia, we test whether efficiency and other organizational factors predict organizational effectiveness in improving Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) ratings. We rely on data from the American Hospital Association and HCAHPS. We estimate hospital cost-efficiency by Stochastic Frontier Analysis and use regression analysis to determine whether efficiency, competition, hospital size, and other organizational factors are significant predictors of hospital effectiveness. Our findings indicate that efficiency and hospital size have a significant negative association with organizational ability to improve HCAHPS ratings. Although achieving organizational efficiency is necessary for health care organizations, given the changes that are currently occurring in the U.S. health care system, it is important for health care managers to maintain a certain level of slack to respond to environmental demands and have the resources needed to improve their performance.

Technical and scale efficiency in the delivery of child health services in Zambia: results from data envelopment analysis

PubMed Central

Achoki, Tom; Hovels, Anke; Masiye, Felix; Lesego, Abaleng; Leufkens, Hubert; Kinfu, Yohannes

2017-01-01

Objective Despite tremendous efforts to scale up key maternal and child health interventions in Zambia, progress has not been uniform across the country. This raises fundamental health system performance questions that require further investigation. Our study investigates technical and scale efficiency (SE) in the delivery of maternal and child health services in the country. Setting The study focused on all 72 health districts of Zambia. Methods We compiled a district-level database comprising health outcomes (measured by the probability of survival to 5 years of age), health outputs (measured by coverage of key health interventions) and a set of health system inputs, namely, financial resources and human resources for health, for the year 2010. We used data envelopment analysis to assess the performance of subnational units across Zambia with respect to technical and SE, controlling for environmental factors that are beyond the control of health system decision makers. Results Nationally, average technical efficiency with respect to improving child survival was 61.5% (95% CI 58.2% to 64.8%), which suggests that there is a huge inefficiency in resource use in the country and the potential to expand services without injecting additional resources into the system. Districts that were more urbanised and had a higher proportion of educated women were more technically efficient. Improved cooking methods and donor funding had no significant effect on efficiency. Conclusions With the pressing need to accelerate progress in population health, decision makers must seek efficient ways to deliver services to achieve universal health coverage. Understanding the factors that drive performance and seeking ways to enhance efficiency offer a practical pathway through which low-income countries could improve population health without necessarily seeking additional resources. PMID:28057650

Selecting indicators for the 2011 Assessment of the Nation's Wetlands

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to conduct a National Wetland Condition Assessment in 2011 with reporting due in 2013. The results will be used to ensure that technical and financial resources are more efficiently allocated to address risks that confro...

A 21st Century Roadmap for Human Health Risk Assessment

EPA Science Inventory

For decades human health risk assessment has depended primarily on animal testing to predict adverse effects in humans, but that paradigm has come under question because of calls for more accurate information, less use of animals, and more efficient use of resources. Moreover, t...

The Efficiency of Increasing the Capacity of Physiotherapy Screening Clinics or Traditional Medical Services to Address Unmet Demand in Orthopaedic Outpatients: A Practical Application of Discrete Event Simulation with Dynamic Queuing.

PubMed

Standfield, L; Comans, T; Raymer, M; O'Leary, S; Moretto, N; Scuffham, P

2016-08-01

Hospital outpatient orthopaedic services traditionally rely on medical specialists to assess all new patients to determine appropriate care. This has resulted in significant delays in service provision. In response, Orthopaedic Physiotherapy Screening Clinics and Multidisciplinary Services (OPSC) have been introduced to assess and co-ordinate care for semi- and non-urgent patients. To compare the efficiency of delivering increased semi- and non-urgent orthopaedic outpatient services through: (1) additional OPSC services; (2) additional traditional orthopaedic medical services with added surgical resources (TOMS + Surg); or (3) additional TOMS without added surgical resources (TOMS - Surg). A cost-utility analysis using discrete event simulation (DES) with dynamic queuing (DQ) was used to predict the cost effectiveness, throughput, queuing times, and resource utilisation, associated with introducing additional OPSC or TOMS ± Surg versus usual care. The introduction of additional OPSC or TOMS (±surgery) would be considered cost effective in Australia. However, OPSC was the most cost-effective option. Increasing the capacity of current OPSC services is an efficient way to improve patient throughput and waiting times without exceeding current surgical resources. An OPSC capacity increase of ~100 patients per month appears cost effective (A$8546 per quality-adjusted life-year) and results in a high level of OPSC utilisation (98 %). Increasing OPSC capacity to manage semi- and non-urgent patients would be cost effective, improve throughput, and reduce waiting times without exceeding current surgical resources. Unlike Markov cohort modelling, microsimulation, or DES without DQ, employing DES-DQ in situations where capacity constraints predominate provides valuable additional information beyond cost effectiveness to guide resource allocation decisions.

Environmental and natural resource implications of sustainable urban infrastructure systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergesen, Joseph D.; Suh, Sangwon; Baynes, Timothy M.; Kaviti Musango, Josephine

2017-12-01

As cities grow, their environmental and natural resource footprints also tend to grow to keep up with the increasing demand on essential urban services such as passenger transportation, commercial space, and thermal comfort. The urban infrastructure systems, or socio-technical systems providing these services are the major conduits through which natural resources are consumed and environmental impacts are generated. This paper aims to gauge the potential reductions in environmental and resources footprints through urban transformation, including the deployment of resource-efficient socio-technical systems and strategic densification. Using hybrid life cycle assessment approach combined with scenarios, we analyzed the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water use, metal consumption and land use of selected socio-technical systems in 84 cities from the present to 2050. The socio-technical systems analyzed are: (1) bus rapid transit with electric buses, (2) green commercial buildings, and (3) district energy. We developed a baseline model for each city considering gross domestic product, population density, and climate conditions. Then, we overlaid three scenarios on top of the baseline model: (1) decarbonization of electricity, (2) aggressive deployment of resource-efficient socio-technical systems, and (3) strategic urban densification scenarios to each city and quantified their potentials in reducing the environmental and resource impacts of cities by 2050. The results show that, under the baseline scenario, the environmental and natural resource footprints of all 84 cities combined would increase 58%-116% by 2050. The resource-efficient scenario along with strategic densification, however, has the potential to curve down GHG emissions to 17% below the 2010 level in 2050. Such transformation can also limit the increase in all resource footprints to less than 23% relative to 2010. This analysis suggests that resource-efficient urban infrastructure and decarbonization of electricity coupled with strategic densification have a potential to mitigate resources and environmental footprints of growing cities.

A Diagnostic Assessment of Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization for Water Resources Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reed, P.; Hadka, D.; Herman, J.; Kasprzyk, J.; Kollat, J.

2012-04-01

This study contributes a rigorous diagnostic assessment of state-of-the-art multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) and highlights key advances that the water resources field can exploit to better discover the critical tradeoffs constraining our systems. This study provides the most comprehensive diagnostic assessment of MOEAs for water resources to date, exploiting more than 100,000 MOEA runs and trillions of design evaluations. The diagnostic assessment measures the effectiveness, efficiency, reliability, and controllability of ten benchmark MOEAs for a representative suite of water resources applications addressing rainfall-runoff calibration, long-term groundwater monitoring (LTM), and risk-based water supply portfolio planning. The suite of problems encompasses a range of challenging problem properties including (1) many-objective formulations with 4 or more objectives, (2) multi-modality (or false optima), (3) nonlinearity, (4) discreteness, (5) severe constraints, (6) stochastic objectives, and (7) non-separability (also called epistasis). The applications are representative of the dominant problem classes that have shaped the history of MOEAs in water resources and that will be dominant foci in the future. Recommendations are provided for which modern MOEAs should serve as tools and benchmarks in the future water resources literature.

Complex Moving Parts: Assessment Systems and Electronic Portfolios

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larkin, Martha J.; Robertson, Royce L.

2013-01-01

The largest college within an online university of over 50,000 students invested significant resources in translating a complex assessment system focused on continuous improvement and national accreditation into an effective and efficient electronic portfolio (ePortfolio). The team building the system needed a model to address problems met…

Assumptions Commonly Underlying Government Quality Assessment Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmidtlein, Frank A.

2004-01-01

The current interest in governmental assessment and accountability practices appears to result from:(1) an emerging view of higher education as an "industry"; (2) concerns about efficient resource allocation; (3) a lack of trust ade between government institutional officials; (4) a desire to reduce uncertainty in government/higher education…

Transfer Credit Assessment: A Survey of Institutional Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfer, 2015

2015-01-01

Assessing credits that transfer students bring to an institution may require a significant amount of institutional resources. The increased mobility of students among post-secondary institutions in British Columbia (BC), and the need to ensure efficient admission processes for both the student and the institution, makes transfer credit assessment…

Environmental audits and process flow mapping to assess management of solid waste and wastewater from a healthcare facility: an Italian case study.

PubMed

Vaccari, Mentore; Montasser, Waleed; Tudor, Terry; Leone, Luigi

2017-05-01

In Europe, there are an increasing number of policy and legislative drivers for a more sustainable approach to the management of natural resources as well as for the mitigation of environmental health risks. However, despite significant progress in recent years, there is still some way to go to achieve circularity of process, as well as risk mitigation within organisations. Using a case study of the Gardone Val Trompia hospital in northern Italy, this manuscript offers a novel holistic examination of strategies to enhance resource efficiency and environmental health within a key sector, i.e. the healthcare sector. Through the use of environmental audits and process flow mapping, trends in waste and wastewater arisings and the associated financial and environmental costs and risks were identified. Recommendations for developing more resource efficient approaches as well as mitigating the environmental and public health risks are suggested. These include strategies for improved resource efficiency (including reduction in the hazardous waste) and reduced environmental impacts during the containment, transport and treatment of the waste.

Current perspectives in contaminant hydrology and water resources sustainability

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bradley, Paul M.

2013-01-01

Human society depends on liquid freshwater resources to meet drinking, sanitation and hygiene, agriculture, and industry needs. Improved resource monitoring and better understanding of the anthropogenic threats to freshwater environments are critical to efficient management of freshwater resources and ultimately to the survival and quality of life of the global human population. This book helps address the need for improved freshwater resource monitoring and threat assessment by presenting current reviews and case studies focused on the fate and transport of contaminants in the environment and on the sustainability of groundwater and surface-water resources around the world. It is intended for students and professionals working in hydrology and water resources management.

Regional issues in energy development: a dialogue of east and west

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Leman, C.K.

1981-01-01

Topics presented at the symposium include: comparing Canadian and US regional energy conflicts, beyond greed and envy; summary of energy impacts on resource-rich and resource-poor regions; equity and efficiency in regional energy policy; technical solutions to political problems; political solutions to political problems; and a summary, pulling apart or getting together, an assessment of the dialogue. (GHT)

Towards the review of the European Union Water Framework Directive: Recommendations for more efficient assessment and management of chemical contamination in European surface water resources

EPA Science Inventory

Water is a vital resource for natural ecosystems and human life, and assuring a high quality of water and protectingit from chemical contamination is a major societal goal in the European Union. The Water Framework Directive(WFD) and its daughter directives are the major body of ...

Self managing experiment resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stagni, F.; Ubeda, M.; Tsaregorodtsev, A.; Romanovskiy, V.; Roiser, S.; Charpentier, P.; Graciani, R.

2014-06-01

Within this paper we present an autonomic Computing resources management system, used by LHCb for assessing the status of their Grid resources. Virtual Organizations Grids include heterogeneous resources. For example, LHC experiments very often use resources not provided by WLCG, and Cloud Computing resources will soon provide a non-negligible fraction of their computing power. The lack of standards and procedures across experiments and sites generated the appearance of multiple information systems, monitoring tools, ticket portals, etc... which nowadays coexist and represent a very precious source of information for running HEP experiments Computing systems as well as sites. These two facts lead to many particular solutions for a general problem: managing the experiment resources. In this paper we present how LHCb, via the DIRAC interware, addressed such issues. With a renewed Central Information Schema hosting all resources metadata and a Status System (Resource Status System) delivering real time information, the system controls the resources topology, independently of the resource types. The Resource Status System applies data mining techniques against all possible information sources available and assesses the status changes, that are then propagated to the topology description. Obviously, giving full control to such an automated system is not risk-free. Therefore, in order to minimise the probability of misbehavior, a battery of tests has been developed in order to certify the correctness of its assessments. We will demonstrate the performance and efficiency of such a system in terms of cost reduction and reliability.

Assessment of Biomass Resources in Liberia

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Milbrandt, A.

2009-04-01

Biomass resources meet about 99.5% of the Liberian population?s energy needs so they are vital to basic welfare and economic activity. Already, traditional biomass products like firewood and charcoal are the primary energy source used for domestic cooking and heating. However, other more efficient biomass technologies are available that could open opportunities for agriculture and rural development, and provide other socio-economic and environmental benefits.The main objective of this study is to estimate the biomass resources currently and potentially available in the country and evaluate their contribution for power generation and the production of transportation fuels. It intends to inform policymore » makers and industry developers of the biomass resource availability in Liberia, identify areas with high potential, and serve as a base for further, more detailed site-specific assessments.« less

Efficiency of Health Care Production in Low-Resource Settings: A Monte-Carlo Simulation to Compare the Performance of Data Envelopment Analysis, Stochastic Distance Functions, and an Ensemble Model

PubMed Central

Giorgio, Laura Di; Flaxman, Abraham D.; Moses, Mark W.; Fullman, Nancy; Hanlon, Michael; Conner, Ruben O.; Wollum, Alexandra; Murray, Christopher J. L.

2016-01-01

Low-resource countries can greatly benefit from even small increases in efficiency of health service provision, supporting a strong case to measure and pursue efficiency improvement in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, the knowledge base concerning efficiency measurement remains scarce for these contexts. This study shows that current estimation approaches may not be well suited to measure technical efficiency in LMICs and offers an alternative approach for efficiency measurement in these settings. We developed a simulation environment which reproduces the characteristics of health service production in LMICs, and evaluated the performance of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Distance Function (SDF) for assessing efficiency. We found that an ensemble approach (ENS) combining efficiency estimates from a restricted version of DEA (rDEA) and restricted SDF (rSDF) is the preferable method across a range of scenarios. This is the first study to analyze efficiency measurement in a simulation setting for LMICs. Our findings aim to heighten the validity and reliability of efficiency analyses in LMICs, and thus inform policy dialogues about improving the efficiency of health service production in these settings. PMID:26812685

Chapter 11: Sample Design Cross-Cutting Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kurnik, Charles W; Khawaja, M. Sami; Rushton, Josh

Evaluating an energy efficiency program requires assessing the total energy and demand saved through all of the energy efficiency measures provided by the program. For large programs, the direct assessment of savings for each participant would be cost-prohibitive. Even if a program is small enough that a full census could be managed, such an undertaking would almost always be an inefficient use of evaluation resources. The bulk of this chapter describes methods for minimizing and quantifying sampling error. Measurement error and regression error are discussed in various contexts in other chapters.

Assessing Space Utilisation Relative to Key Performance Indicators--How Well, Not How Much, Space Is Used

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fleming, Simon; Apps, Nathan; Harbon, Paul; Baldock, Clive

2012-01-01

Efficient use of resources, including space, is critical in academic departments. Traditional space auditing simply assesses occupancy levels. We present a novel approach which assesses not just the extent to which space is used, but also how well it is used. We link space use quantitatively to key performance indicators in a research-intensive…

Water resources vulnerability assessment in the Adriatic Sea region: the case of Corfu Island.

PubMed

Kanakoudis, Vasilis; Tsitsifli, Stavroula; Papadopoulou, Anastasia; Cencur Curk, Barbara; Karleusa, Barbara

2017-09-01

Cross-border water resources management and protection is a complicated task to achieve, lacking a common methodological framework. Especially in the Adriatic region, water used for drinking water supply purposes pass from many different countries, turning its management into a hard task to achieve. During the DRINKADRIA project, a common methodological framework has been developed, for efficient and effective cross-border water supply and resources management, taking into consideration different resources types (surface and groundwater) emphasizing in drinking water supply intake. The common methodology for water resources management is based on four pillars: climate characteristics and climate change, water resources availability, quality, and security. The present paper assesses both present and future vulnerability of water resources in the Adriatic region, with special focus on Corfu Island, Greece. The results showed that climate change is expected to impact negatively on water resources availability while at the same time, water demand is expected to increase. Water quality problems will be intensified especially due to land use changes and salt water intrusion. The analysis identified areas where water resources are more vulnerable, allowing decision makers develop management strategies.

Deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard their relative shares: evidence from USA and India

PubMed Central

Corgnet, Brice; Espín, Antonio M.; Hernán-González, Roberto

2017-01-01

Groups make decisions on both the production and the distribution of resources. These decisions typically involve a tension between increasing the total level of group resources (i.e. social efficiency) and distributing these resources among group members (i.e. individuals' relative shares). This is the case because the redistribution process may destroy part of the resources, thus resulting in socially inefficient allocations. Here we apply a dual-process approach to understand the cognitive underpinnings of this fundamental tension. We conducted a set of experiments to examine the extent to which different allocation decisions respond to intuition or deliberation. In a newly developed approach, we assess intuition and deliberation at both the trait level (using the Cognitive Reflection Test, henceforth CRT) and the state level (through the experimental manipulation of response times). To test for robustness, experiments were conducted in two countries: the USA and India. Despite absolute-level differences across countries, in both locations we show that: (i) time pressure and low CRT scores are associated with individuals' concerns for their relative shares and (ii) time delay and high CRT scores are associated with individuals' concerns for social efficiency. These findings demonstrate that deliberation favours social efficiency by overriding individuals' intuitive tendency to focus on relative shares. PMID:28386421

Critical research needs for identifying future changes in Gulf coral reef ecosystems.

PubMed

Feary, David A; Burt, John A; Bauman, Andrew G; Al Hazeem, Shaker; Abdel-Moati, Mohamed A; Al-Khalifa, Khalifa A; Anderson, Donald M; Amos, Carl; Baker, Andrew; Bartholomew, Aaron; Bento, Rita; Cavalcante, Geórgenes H; Chen, Chaolun Allen; Coles, Steve L; Dab, Koosha; Fowler, Ashley M; George, David; Grandcourt, Edwin; Hill, Ross; John, David M; Jones, David A; Keshavmurthy, Shashank; Mahmoud, Huda; Moradi Och Tapeh, Mahdi; Mostafavi, Pargol Ghavam; Naser, Humood; Pichon, Michel; Purkis, Sam; Riegl, Bernhard; Samimi-Namin, Kaveh; Sheppard, Charles; Vajed Samiei, Jahangir; Voolstra, Christian R; Wiedenmann, Joerg

2013-07-30

Expert opinion was assessed to identify current knowledge gaps in determining future changes in Arabian/Persian Gulf (thereafter 'Gulf') coral reefs. Thirty-one participants submitted 71 research questions that were peer-assessed in terms of scientific importance (i.e., filled a knowledge gap and was a research priority) and efficiency in resource use (i.e., was highly feasible and ecologically broad). Ten research questions, in six major research areas, were highly important for both understanding Gulf coral reef ecosystems and also an efficient use of limited research resources. These questions mirrored global evaluations of the importance of understanding and evaluating biodiversity, determining the potential impacts of climate change, the role of anthropogenic impacts in structuring coral reef communities, and economically evaluating coral reef communities. These questions provide guidance for future research on coral reef ecosystems within the Gulf, and enhance the potential for assessment and management of future changes in this globally significant region. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Critical research needs for identifying future changes in Gulf coral reef ecosystems

PubMed Central

Feary, David A.; Burt, John A.; Bauman, Andrew G.; Al Hazeem, Shaker; Abdel-Moati, Mohamed A.; Al-Khalifa, Khalifa A.; Anderson, Donald M.; Amos, Carl; Baker, Andrew; Bartholomew, Aaron; Bento, Rita; Cavalcante, Geórgenes H.; Chen, Chaolun Allen; Coles, Steve L.; Dab, Koosha; Fowler, Ashley M.; George, David; Grandcourt, Edwin; Hill, Ross; John, David M.; Jones, David A.; Keshavmurthy, Shashank; Mahmoud, Huda; Moradi Och Tapeh, Mahdi; Mostafavi, Pargol Ghavam; Naser, Humood; Pichon, Michel; Purkis, Sam; Riegl, Bernhard; Samimi-Namin, Kaveh; Sheppard, Charles; Vajed Samiei, Jahangir; Voolstra, Christian R.; Wiedenmann, Joerg

2014-01-01

Expert opinion was assessed to identify current knowledge gaps in determining future changes in Arabian/ Persian Gulf (thereafter ‘Gulf’) coral reefs. Thirty-one participants submitted 71 research questions that were peer-assessed in terms of scientific importance (i.e., filled a knowledge gap and was a research priority) and efficiency in resource use (i.e., was highly feasible and ecologically broad). Ten research questions, in six major research areas, were highly important for both understanding Gulf coral reef ecosystems and also an efficient use of limited research resources. These questions mirrored global evaluations of the importance of understanding and evaluating biodiversity, determining the potential impacts of climate change, the role of anthropogenic impacts in structuring coral reef communities, and economically evaluating coral reef communities. These questions provide guidance for future research on coral reef ecosystems within the Gulf, and enhance the potential for assessment and management of future changes in this globally significant region. PMID:23643407

Performance Indicators for Public Spending Efficiency in Primary and Secondary Education. OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 546

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutherland, Douglas; Price, Robert; Joumard, Isabelle, Nicq, Chantal

2007-01-01

This paper assesses the potential to raise public spending efficiency in the primary and secondary education sector. Resource availability per pupil has increased significantly over the past decade in a number of countries; often in attempting to exploit the link between educational attainment and growth. However, available evidence reveals only a…

Improving environmental impact and cost assessment for supplier evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beucker, Severin; Lang, Claus

2004-02-01

Improving a company"s environmental and financial performance necessitates the evaluation of environmental impacts deriving from the production and cost effects of corporate actions. These effects have to be made transparent and concrete targets have to be developed. Such an evaluation has to be done on a regular basis but with limited expenses. To achieve this, different instruments of environmental controlling such as LCA and environmental performance indicators have to be combined with methods from cost accounting. Within the research project CARE (Computer Aided Resource Efficiency Accounting for Medium-Sized Enterprises), the method Resource Efficiency Accounting (REA) is used to give the participating companies new insights into hidden costs and environmental effects of their production and products. The method combines process based cost accounting with environmental impact assessment methodology and offers results that can be integrated into a company"s environmental controlling system and business processes like cost accounting, supplier assessment, etc. Much of the data necessary for the combined assessment can be available within a company"s IT system and therefore can be efficiently used for the assessment process. The project CARE puts a strong focus on the use of company data and information systems for the described assessment process and offers a methodological background for the evaluation and the structuring of such data. Besides the general approach of the project CARE the paper will present results from a case study in which the described approach is used for the evaluation of suppliers.

An Evaluation of the Predictive Validity of Confidence Ratings in Identifying Functional Behavioral Assessment Hypothesis Statements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borgmeier, Chris; Horner, Robert H.

2006-01-01

Faced with limited resources, schools require tools that increase the accuracy and efficiency of functional behavioral assessment. Yarbrough and Carr (2000) provided evidence that informant confidence ratings of the likelihood of problem behavior in specific situations offered a promising tool for predicting the accuracy of function-based…

Assessing soil erosion on trails: A comparison of techniques

Treesearch

Mark C. Jewell; William E. Hammitt

2000-01-01

Reports of trail degradation have been increasing in different wildernesses. This impact has become a common concern among managers. Deteriorating tread conditions of trails are increasing, as is concern at protected areas worldwide. In order to make objective and timely trail resource decisions, managers need to have effective and efficient methods of assessing trail...

Assessing Motivation To Read. Instructional Resource No. 14.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gambrell, Linda B.; And Others

The Motivation to Read Profile (MRP) is a public-domain instrument designed to provide teachers with an efficient and reliable way to assess reading motivation qualitatively and quantitatively by evaluating students' self-concept as readers and the value they place on reading. The MRP consists of two basic instruments: the Reading Survey (a…

Denmark's Master of Public Governance Program: Assessment and Lessons Learned

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greve, Carsten; Pedersen, Anne Reff

2017-01-01

This paper focuses on Denmark's Master of Public Governance and its assessments and lessons learned. Denmark is seen to have an efficient economy and public sector, a digitalized public service delivery system, and an advanced work-life balance. The Danish government invested substantial resources into developing a Master of Public Governance…

Assessing Resource Assessment for MRE (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanson, H. P.; Bozec, A.; Duerr, A. S.; Rauchenstein, L. T.

2010-12-01

The Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Florida Atlantic University is concerned with marine renewable energy (MRE) recovery from the Florida Current using marine hydrokinetic technology and, in the future, from the thermocline in the Florida Straits via ocean thermal energy conversion. Although neither concept is new, technology improvements and the evolution of policy now warrant optimism for the future of these potentially rich resources. In moving toward commercial-scale deployments of energy-generating systems, an important first step is accurate and unembellished assessment of the resource itself. In short, we must ask: how much energy might be available? The answer to this deceptively simple question depends, of course, on the technology itself - system efficiencies, for example - but it also depends on a variety of other limiting factors such as deployment strategies, environmental considerations, and the overall economics of MRE in the context of competing energy resources. While it is universally agreed that MRE development must occur within a framework of environmental stewardship, it is nonetheless inevitable that there will be trade-offs between absolute environmental protection and realizing the benefits of MRE implementation. As with solar-energy and wind-power technologies, MRE technologies interact with the environment in which they are deployed. Ecological, societal, and even physical resource concerns all require investigation and, in some cases, mitigation. Moreover, the converse - how will the environment affect the equipment? - presents technical challenges that have confounded the seagoing community forever. Biofouling, for example, will affect system efficiency and create significant maintenance and operations issues. Because this will also affect the economics of MRE, nonlinear interactions among the limiting factors complicate the overall issue of resource assessment significantly. While MRE technology development is largely an engineering task, resource assessment falls more to the oceanography community. Current and temperature structure measurements, for example, are critical for these efforts. Once again, however, the picture is complicated by the nature of the endeavor: deploying complex equipment of scales of tens of meters into a medium that is traditionally measured on scales of tens of kilometers implies a scale mismatch that must be overcome. The challenge, then, is to develop assessments of the resource on larger scales - so that the potential of the resource may be understood - while characterizing it on very small scales to be able to understand how equipment will be affected. Meeting this challenge will require both funding and time, but it will also result in new oceanographic insight and understanding.

Efficiency Assessment of the Power Supply System of an Industrial Enterprise Through the Assessment of the Modes of Electric Power Consumption

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miatishkin, Gennadii V.; Filinova, Anastasiia S.

2018-01-01

The paper reviews the terms of the rational consumption and distribution of the energy resources at an enterprise. The authors analyze the significance and the effect of the change of the profile of the energy consumption per hour by the enterprise. The text explores the factors influencing the discipline of the planned electricity and power consumption. The authors present a calculation of the weighted average deviations for consumers and the terms of their assessment. The authors make conclusions concerning the rationality of the means of defining the energy efficiency system through the assessment of the modes of electric energy consumption of an industrial enterprise.

Evaluation on the efficiencies of county-level Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in China: results from a national survey.

PubMed

Li, Chengyue; Sun, Mei; Shen, Jay J; Cochran, Christopher R; Li, Xiaojiao; Hao, Mo

2016-09-01

The Chinese government has greatly increased funding for disease control and prevention since the 2003 Severe Acute Respiration Syndrome crisis, but it is also concerned whether these increased resources have been used efficiently to improve public health services. We aimed to assess the efficiency of county-level Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs) of China and to identify strategies for optimising their performance. A total of 446 county-level CDCs were selected based on systematic sampling throughout China. The data envelopment analysis framework was used to calculate the efficiency score of sampled CDCs in 2010. The Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR) model was applied to calculate the overall and scale efficiency, and the Banker, Charnes and Cooper (BCC) model was used to assess technical efficiency. Models included three inputs and seven outputs. A projection analysis was conducted to identify the difference between projection value and actual value for inputs and outputs. The average overall efficiency score of CDCs was 0.317, and the average technical efficiency score was 0.442 and 88.3% with decreasing returns to scale. Projection analysis indicated that all seven categories of outputs were underproduced. CDCs in the eastern region tended to perform better than CDCs in the middle and the western region. Most county-level CDCs in China were operated inefficiently. Emphasis should be put on increasing staff and general operating expenses through current governmental funding, upgrading healthcare providers' competencies and enhancing the standardisation of operational management, so that CDCs could utilise their resources more efficiently. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Institutionalising health technology assessment: establishing the Medical Technology Assessment Board in India.

PubMed

Downey, Laura E; Mehndiratta, Abha; Grover, Ashoo; Gauba, Vijay; Sheikh, Kabir; Prinja, Shankar; Singh, Ravinder; Cluzeau, Francoise A; Dabak, Saudamini; Teerawattananon, Yot; Kumar, Sanjiv; Swaminathan, Soumya

2017-01-01

India is at crossroads with a commitment by the government to universal health coverage (UHC), driving efficiency and tackling waste across the public healthcare sector. Health technology assessment (HTA) is an important policy reform that can assist policy-makers to tackle inequities and inefficiencies by improving the way in which health resources are allocated towards cost-effective, appropriate and feasible interventions. The equitable and efficient distribution of health budget resources, as well as timely uptake of good value technologies, are critical to strengthen the Indian healthcare system. The government of India is set to establish a Medical Technology Assessment Board to evaluate existing and new health technologies in India, assist choices between comparable technologies for adoption by the healthcare system and improve the way in which priorities for health are set. This initiative aims to introduce a more transparent, inclusive, fair and evidence-based process by which decisions regarding the allocation of health resources are made in India towards the ultimate goal of UHC. In this analysis article, we report on plans and progress of the government of India for the institutionalisation of HTA in the country. Where India is home to one-sixth of the global population, improving the health services that the population receives will have a resounding impact not only for India but also for global health.

Institutionalising health technology assessment: establishing the Medical Technology Assessment Board in India

PubMed Central

Downey, Laura E; Mehndiratta, Abha; Grover, Ashoo; Gauba, Vijay; Sheikh, Kabir; Prinja, Shankar; Singh, Ravinder; Cluzeau, Francoise A; Dabak, Saudamini; Teerawattananon, Yot; Kumar, Sanjiv; Swaminathan, Soumya

2017-01-01

India is at crossroads with a commitment by the government to universal health coverage (UHC), driving efficiency and tackling waste across the public healthcare sector. Health technology assessment (HTA) is an important policy reform that can assist policy-makers to tackle inequities and inefficiencies by improving the way in which health resources are allocated towards cost-effective, appropriate and feasible interventions. The equitable and efficient distribution of health budget resources, as well as timely uptake of good value technologies, are critical to strengthen the Indian healthcare system. The government of India is set to establish a Medical Technology Assessment Board to evaluate existing and new health technologies in India, assist choices between comparable technologies for adoption by the healthcare system and improve the way in which priorities for health are set. This initiative aims to introduce a more transparent, inclusive, fair and evidence-based process by which decisions regarding the allocation of health resources are made in India towards the ultimate goal of UHC. In this analysis article, we report on plans and progress of the government of India for the institutionalisation of HTA in the country. Where India is home to one-sixth of the global population, improving the health services that the population receives will have a resounding impact not only for India but also for global health. PMID:29225927

Water Market-scale Agricultural Planning: Promoting Competing Water Resource Use Efficiency Through Agro-Economics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delorit, J. D.; Block, P. J.

2017-12-01

Where strong water rights law and corresponding markets exist as a coupled econo-legal mechanism, water rights holders are permitted to trade allocations to promote economic water resource use efficiency. In locations where hydrologic uncertainty drives the assignment of annual per-water right allocation values by water resource managers, collaborative water resource decision making by water rights holders, specifically those involved in agricultural production, can result in both resource and economic Pareto efficiency. Such is the case in semi-arid North Chile, where interactions between representative farmer groups, treated as competitive bilateral monopolies, and modeled at water market-scale, can provide both price and water right allocation distribution signals for unregulated, temporary water right leasing markets. For the range of feasible per-water right allocation values, a coupled agricultural-economic model is developed to describe the equilibrium distribution of water, the corresponding market price of water rights and the net surplus generated by collaboration between competing agricultural uses. Further, this research describes a per-water right inflection point for allocations where economic efficiency is not possible, and where price negotiation among competing agricultural uses is required. An investigation of the effects of water right supply and demand inequality at the market-scale is completed to characterize optimal market performance under existing water rights law. The broader insights of this research suggest that water rights holders engaged in agriculture can achieve economic benefits from forming crop-type cooperatives and by accurately assessing the economic value of allocation.

Resources | Efficient Windows Collaborative

Science.gov Websites

Foundry Foundry New Construction Windows Window Selection Tool Selection Process Design Guidance Installation Replacement Windows Window Selection Tool Assessing Options Selection Process Design Guidance Installation Understanding Windows Benefits Design Considerations Measuring Performance Performance Standards

Health technology assessment in Saudi Arabia.

PubMed

Al-Aqeel, Sinaa

2018-05-16

The Saudi government, similar to any other government, is committed to making public spending more efficient, using resources more effectively, and limiting waste. Health technology assessment (HTA) is a tool that informs policy and decision makers regarding the formulation of safe and effective policies that are patient-focused and help to achieve efficiency when allocating limited health-care resources. Areas covered: After a brief description of HTA in the international context, this review provides a brief introduction to Saudi Arabia's health-care system, followed by a delineation of the decision maker(s) and influencers and the decision-making process for pricing and reimbursement. The article then discusses the current status of HTA in Saudi Arabia and proposes four strategic objectives that can form the first step in the development of a formal HTA process. Expert commentary: In Saudi Arabia, facilitators for incorporating HTA into the decision-making process exist. Future local research is needed to guide the implementation of full HTA.

Technical and scale efficiency in the delivery of child health services in Zambia: results from data envelopment analysis.

PubMed

Achoki, Tom; Hovels, Anke; Masiye, Felix; Lesego, Abaleng; Leufkens, Hubert; Kinfu, Yohannes

2017-01-05

Despite tremendous efforts to scale up key maternal and child health interventions in Zambia, progress has not been uniform across the country. This raises fundamental health system performance questions that require further investigation. Our study investigates technical and scale efficiency (SE) in the delivery of maternal and child health services in the country. The study focused on all 72 health districts of Zambia. We compiled a district-level database comprising health outcomes (measured by the probability of survival to 5 years of age), health outputs (measured by coverage of key health interventions) and a set of health system inputs, namely, financial resources and human resources for health, for the year 2010. We used data envelopment analysis to assess the performance of subnational units across Zambia with respect to technical and SE, controlling for environmental factors that are beyond the control of health system decision makers. Nationally, average technical efficiency with respect to improving child survival was 61.5% (95% CI 58.2% to 64.8%), which suggests that there is a huge inefficiency in resource use in the country and the potential to expand services without injecting additional resources into the system. Districts that were more urbanised and had a higher proportion of educated women were more technically efficient. Improved cooking methods and donor funding had no significant effect on efficiency. With the pressing need to accelerate progress in population health, decision makers must seek efficient ways to deliver services to achieve universal health coverage. Understanding the factors that drive performance and seeking ways to enhance efficiency offer a practical pathway through which low-income countries could improve population health without necessarily seeking additional resources. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Water demand for electricity in deep decarbonisation scenarios: a multi-model assessment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mouratiadou, I.; Bevione, M.; Bijl, D. L.

This study assesses the effects of deep electricity decarbonisation and shifts in the choice of power plant cooling technologies on global electricity water demand, using a suite of five integrated assessment models. We find that electricity sector decarbonisation results in co-benefits for water resources primarily due to the phase-out of water-intensive coal-based thermoelectric power generation, although these co-benefits vary substantially across decarbonisation scenarios. Wind and solar photovoltaic power represent a win-win option for both climate and water resources, but further expansion of nuclear or fossil- and biomass-fuelled power plants with carbon capture and storage may result in increased pressures onmore » the water environment. Further to these results, the paper provides insights on the most crucial factors of uncertainty with regards to future estimates of water demand. These estimates varied substantially across models in scenarios where the effects of decarbonisation on the electricity mix were less clear-cut. Future thermal and water efficiency improvements of power generation technologies and demand-side energy efficiency improvements were also identified to be important factors of uncertainty. We conclude that in order to ensure positive effects of decarbonisation on water resources, climate policy should be combined with technology-specific energy and/or water policies.« less

Sustainable mineral resources management: from regional mineral resources exploration to spatial contamination risk assessment of mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jordan, Gyozo

2009-07-01

Wide-spread environmental contamination associated with historic mining in Europe has triggered social responses to improve related environmental legislation, the environmental assessment and management methods for the mining industry. Mining has some unique features such as natural background contamination associated with mineral deposits, industrial activities and contamination in the three-dimensional subsurface space, problem of long-term remediation after mine closure, problem of secondary contaminated areas around mine sites, land use conflicts and abandoned mines. These problems require special tools to address the complexity of the environmental problems of mining-related contamination. The objective of this paper is to show how regional mineral resources mapping has developed into the spatial contamination risk assessment of mining and how geological knowledge can be transferred to environmental assessment of mines. The paper provides a state-of-the-art review of the spatial mine inventory, hazard, impact and risk assessment and ranking methods developed by national and international efforts in Europe. It is concluded that geological knowledge on mineral resources exploration is essential and should be used for the environmental contamination assessment of mines. Also, sufficient methodological experience, knowledge and documented results are available, but harmonisation of these methods is still required for the efficient spatial environmental assessment of mine contamination.

Improving School Nurse Pain Assessment Practices for Students With Intellectual Disability.

PubMed

Quinn, Brenna L; Smolinski, Megan

2017-01-01

School nurses are afforded minimal resources related to assessing pain in students with intellectual disability (ID) and have called for continuing education. The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of an education program regarding best practices for assessing pain in students with ID. Educational sessions were presented to 248 school nurses. Pre-, post-, and follow-up surveys measured (1) difficulty school nurses face when assessing pain, (2) knowledge and use of pain assessment methods, and (3) intent to change and actual changes to professional practices. Participants experienced less difficulty assessing pain following the educational program. Almost all participants intended to change pain assessment practices, but large caseloads limited new practice adoption. Policy makers must consider population size and acuity when determining school nurse staffing. Trainings and other resources should be made available to school nurses in order to make pain assessments for students with ID more thorough and efficient.

Cradle-to-grave analysis on batik cabut product to reduce environmental impact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Djunaidi, Much.; Nursanti, Ida; Suryadarmawan, Viditwo Ashari

2017-06-01

Nowadays, the development of batik industry is growing rapidly. Efforts to protect the environment are increasing fast as well. This makes both of them go in line. In one of batik producers residing in Kampung Batik Laweyan, the process of making batik needs raw and supporting materials, both of which contain chemicals potentially dangerous to the environment. Assessment methods, such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC), to determine the value of the environmental impact are, therefore, needed. LCA and LCC are used to assess the level of product eco-efficiency. The eco-efficiency combines concepts of economic efficiency and efficiency of environmental resources. Based on assessment of 3,120 pieces of batik cabut product, it is found that scores of life cycle assessment (SLCA) and of life cycle cost (SLCC) are 4,049.15 points and IDR 146,437,138.29, respectively. Improvements proposed in this research are by replacing synthetic dyes with natural ones and by substituting wood with LPG. The proposal can reduce the environmental impact as much as 6.65%.

An exergy based assessment of the production and conversion of switchgrass, equine waste and forest residue to bio-oil using fast pyrolysis

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The resource efficiency of biofuel production via biomass pyrolysis is evaluated using exergy as an assessment metric. Three feedstocks, important to various sectors of US agriculture, switchgrass, forest residue and equine waste are considered for conversion to bio-oil (pyrolysis oil) via fast pyro...

The Assessment on the Application of School Administrator Selection in Turkey Related to Competency and Career Principles of Human Resource Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Özyildirim, Gülnar; Kayikçi, Kemal

2017-01-01

Administrators are the most responsible people for achieving goals of educational institution. That administration fulfills schools' aims effectively and efficiently depends on whether administrative functions are carried out according to scientific principles. The aim of the study was the assessment on school administrators' selection done as…

Assessing DRG cost accounting with respect to resource allocation and tariff calculation: the case of Germany

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the German diagnosis related groups (G-DRG) cost accounting scheme by assessing its resource allocation at hospital level and its tariff calculation at national level. First, the paper reviews and assesses the three steps in the G-DRG resource allocation scheme at hospital level: (1) the groundwork; (2) cost-center accounting; and (3) patient-level costing. Second, the paper reviews and assesses the three steps in G-DRG national tariff calculation: (1) plausibility checks; (2) inlier calculation; and (3) the “one hospital” approach. The assessment is based on the two main goals of G-DRG introduction: improving transparency and efficiency. A further empirical assessment attests high costing quality. The G-DRG cost accounting scheme shows high system quality in resource allocation at hospital level, with limitations concerning a managerially relevant full cost approach and limitations in terms of advanced activity-based costing at patient-level. However, the scheme has serious flaws in national tariff calculation: inlier calculation is normative, and the “one hospital” model causes cost bias, adjustment and representativeness issues. The G-DRG system was designed for reimbursement calculation, but developed to a standard with strategic management implications, generalized by the idea of adapting a hospital’s cost structures to DRG revenues. This combination causes problems in actual hospital financing, although resource allocation is advanced at hospital level. PMID:22935314

Assessing DRG cost accounting with respect to resource allocation and tariff calculation: the case of Germany.

PubMed

Vogl, Matthias

2012-08-30

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the German diagnosis related groups (G-DRG) cost accounting scheme by assessing its resource allocation at hospital level and its tariff calculation at national level. First, the paper reviews and assesses the three steps in the G-DRG resource allocation scheme at hospital level: (1) the groundwork; (2) cost-center accounting; and (3) patient-level costing. Second, the paper reviews and assesses the three steps in G-DRG national tariff calculation: (1) plausibility checks; (2) inlier calculation; and (3) the "one hospital" approach. The assessment is based on the two main goals of G-DRG introduction: improving transparency and efficiency. A further empirical assessment attests high costing quality. The G-DRG cost accounting scheme shows high system quality in resource allocation at hospital level, with limitations concerning a managerially relevant full cost approach and limitations in terms of advanced activity-based costing at patient-level. However, the scheme has serious flaws in national tariff calculation: inlier calculation is normative, and the "one hospital" model causes cost bias, adjustment and representativeness issues. The G-DRG system was designed for reimbursement calculation, but developed to a standard with strategic management implications, generalized by the idea of adapting a hospital's cost structures to DRG revenues. This combination causes problems in actual hospital financing, although resource allocation is advanced at hospital level.

High-efficient Unmanned Aircraft System Operations for Ecosystem Assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, H.; Zhang, H.

2016-02-01

Diverse national and international agencies support the idea that incorporating Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into ecosystem assessment will improve the operations efficiency and accuracy. In this paper, a UAS will be designed to monitor the Gulf of Mexico's coastal area ecosystems intelligently and routinely. UAS onboard sensors will capture information that can be utilized to detect and geo-locate areas affected by invasive grasses. Moreover, practical ecosystem will be better assessed by analyzing the collected information. Compared with human-based/satellite-based surveillance, the proposed strategy is more efficient and accurate, and eliminates limitations and risks associated with human factors. State of the art UAS onboard sensors (e.g. high-resolution electro optical camera, night vision camera, thermal sensor etc.) will be used for monitoring coastal ecosystems. Once detected the potential risk in ecosystem, the onboard GPS data will be used to geo-locate and to store the exact coordinates of the affected area. Moreover, the UAS sensors will be used to observe and to record the daily evolution of coastal ecosystems. Further, benefitting from the data collected by the UAS, an intelligent big data processing scheme will be created to assess the ecosystem evolution effectively. Meanwhile, a cost-efficient intelligent autonomous navigation strategy will be implemented into the UAS, in order to guarantee that the UAS can fly over designated areas, and collect significant data in a safe and effective way. Furthermore, the proposed UAS-based ecosystem surveillance and assessment methodologies can be utilized for natural resources conservation. Flying UAS with multiple state of the art sensors will monitor and report the actual state of high importance natural resources frequently. Using the collected data, the ecosystem conservation strategy can be performed effectively and intelligently.

[Hospital efficiency measured by bed space use in a secondary care hospital].

PubMed

Moreno-Martínez, Roberto; Martínez-Cruz, Rocío Alejandra

2015-01-01

In recognition that the availability of resources in the medical facility forms part of the factors that influence the quality of healthcare, it is of vital importance to measure their outcome. The aim of this study was determine the efficiency of the medical facility through the use of beds in a secondary level hospital. Through the Health Information Management System (HIMS), we examined statistical reports from July 2012 to June 2013 including variables such as expenses, patient days, occupancy rate, average length of stay by specialty and medical division, results were obtained for each strategic indicator, and these results were related assumptions proposing to assess hospital efficiency. Overall, we identified optimal efficiency of the medical facility without analysis of services, leads to deteriorating and low efficiency. The overall outcome of the five indicators applied overlooked saturation of services within the medical unit. However, the overall analysis shows the problem, noting the advantage of evaluating the same scenario from different perspectives. The include indicators measuring hospital efficiency resource based bed, allows considering deficiencies identified, so that decision making is strengthened the decision making health.

Joint Peru/United States report on Peru/United States cooperative energy assessment. Volume 1. Executive summary, main report and appendices

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1979-08-01

In 1978, the US and Peru conducted a comprehensive assessment of Peru's energy resources, needs, and uses and developed several alternative energy strategies that utilize the available resources to meet their energy requirements. This Volume I reports the findings of the assessment and contains the executive summary, the main report, and five appendices of information that support the integrated energy supply and demand analysis. The following chapters are included: The Energy Situation in Peru (economic context and background, energy resources and production, energy consumption patterns); Reference Supply and Demand Projection (approach, procedures, and assumptions; economic projections; energy demand and supplymore » projections; supply/demand integration; uncertainties); and The Development of Strategies and Options (the analysis of options; strategies; increased use of renewables, hydropower, coal; increased energy efficiency; and financial analysis of strategies).« less

Analysis and Simulation of Traffic Control for Resource Management in DVB-Based Broadband Satellite Access Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Impemba, Ernesto; Inzerilli, Tiziano

2003-07-01

Integration of satellite access networks with the Internet is seen as a strategic goal to achieve in order to provide ubiquitous broadband access to Internet services in Next Generation Networks (NGNs). One of the main interworking aspects which has been most studied is an efficient management of satellite resources, i.e. bandwidth and buffer space, in order to satisfy most demanding application requirements as to delay control and bandwidth assurance. In this context, resource management in DVB-S/DVB-RCS satellite technologies, emerging technologies for broadband satellite access and transport of IP applications, is a research issue largely investigated as a means to provide efficient bi-directional communications across satellites. This is in particular one of the principal goals of the SATIP6 project, sponsored within the 5th EU Research Programme Framework, i.e. IST. In this paper we present a possible approach to efficiently exploit bandwidth, the most critical resource in a broadband satellite access network, while pursuing satisfaction of delay and bandwidth requirements for applications with guaranteed QoS through a traffic control architecture to be implemented in ground terminals. Performance of this approach is assessed in terms of efficient exploitation of the uplink bandwidth and differentiation and minimization of queuing delays for most demanding applications over a time-varying capacity. Opnet simulations is used as analysis tool.

Time-Varying Value of Energy Efficiency in Michigan

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mims, Natalie; Eckman, Tom; Schwartz, Lisa C.

Quantifying the time-varying value of energy efficiency is necessary to properly account for all of its benefits and costs and to identify and implement efficiency resources that contribute to a low-cost, reliable electric system. Historically, most quantification of the benefits of efficiency has focused largely on the economic value of annual energy reduction. Due to the lack of statistically representative metered end-use load shape data in Michigan (i.e., the hourly or seasonal timing of electricity savings), the ability to confidently characterize the time-varying value of energy efficiency savings in the state, especially for weather-sensitive measures such as central air conditioning,more » is limited. Still, electric utilities in Michigan can take advantage of opportunities to incorporate the time-varying value of efficiency into their planning. For example, end-use load research and hourly valuation of efficiency savings can be used for a variety of electricity planning functions, including load forecasting, demand-side management and evaluation, capacity planning, long-term resource planning, renewable energy integration, assessing potential grid modernization investments, establishing rates and pricing, and customer service (KEMA 2012). In addition, accurately calculating the time-varying value of efficiency may help energy efficiency program administrators prioritize existing offerings, set incentive or rebate levels that reflect the full value of efficiency, and design new programs.« less

Improving the relevance and efficiency of human exposure assessments within the process of regulatory risk assessment.

PubMed

Money, Chris

2018-01-24

The process for undertaking exposure assessments varies dependent on its purpose. But for exposure assessments to be relevant and accurate, they are reliant on access to reliable information on key exposure determinants. Acquiring such information is seldom straightforward and can take significant time and resources. This articles examines how the application of tiered and targeted approaches to information acquisition, within the context of European human health risk assessments, can not only lead to improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of the process but also in the confidence of stakeholders in its outputs. The article explores how the benefits might be further improved through the coordination of such activities, as well as those areas that represent barriers to wider international harmonisation.

Marginalization of end-use technologies in energy innovation for climate protection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Charlie; Grubler, Arnulf; Gallagher, Kelly S.; Nemet, Gregory F.

2012-11-01

Mitigating climate change requires directed innovation efforts to develop and deploy energy technologies. Innovation activities are directed towards the outcome of climate protection by public institutions, policies and resources that in turn shape market behaviour. We analyse diverse indicators of activity throughout the innovation system to assess these efforts. We find efficient end-use technologies contribute large potential emission reductions and provide higher social returns on investment than energy-supply technologies. Yet public institutions, policies and financial resources pervasively privilege energy-supply technologies. Directed innovation efforts are strikingly misaligned with the needs of an emissions-constrained world. Significantly greater effort is needed to develop the full potential of efficient end-use technologies.

Online virtual cases to teach resource stewardship.

PubMed

Zhou, Linghong Linda; Tait, Gordon; Sandhu, Sharron; Steiman, Amanda; Lake, Shirley

2018-06-11

As health care costs rise, medical education must focus on high-value clinical decision making. To teach and assess efficient resource use in rheumatology, online virtual interactive cases (VICs) were developed to simulate real patient encounters to increase price transparency and reinforce cost consciousness. To teach and assess efficient resource use in rheumatology, online virtual interactive cases (VICs) were developed METHODS: The VIC modules were distributed to a sample of medical students and internal medicine residents, who were required to assess patients, order appropriate investigations, develop differential diagnoses and formulate management plans. Each action was associated with a time and price, with the totals compared against ideals. Trainees were evaluated not only on their diagnosis and patient management, but also on the total time, cost and value of their selected workup. Trainee responses were tracked anonymously, with opportunity to provide feedback at the end of each case. Seventeen medical trainees completed a total of 48 VIC modules. On average, trainees spent CAN $227.52 and 68 virtual minutes on each case, which was lower than expected. This may have been the result of a low management score of 52.4%, although on average 92.0% of participants in each case achieved the correct diagnosis. In addition, 85.7% felt more comfortable working up similar cases, and 57.1% believed that the modules increased their ability to appropriately order cost-conscious rheumatology investigations. Our initial assessment of the VIC rheumatology modules was positive, supporting their role as an effective tool in teaching an approach to rheumatology patients, with an emphasis on resource stewardship. Future directions include the expansion of cases, based on feedback, wider dissemination and an evaluation of learning retention. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

Efficiency of antenatal care and childbirth services in selected primary health care facilities in rural Tanzania: a cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Saronga, Happiness P; Duysburgh, Els; Massawe, Siriel; Dalaba, Maxwell A; Savadogo, Germain; Tonchev, Pencho; Dong, Hengjin; Sauerborn, Rainer; Loukanova, Svetla

2014-02-28

Cost studies are paramount for demonstrating how resources have been spent and identifying opportunities for more efficient use of resources. The main objective of this study was to assess the actual dimension and distribution of the costs of providing antenatal care (ANC) and childbirth services in selected rural primary health care facilities in Tanzania. In addition, the study analyzed determining factors of service provision efficiency in order to inform health policy and planning. This was a retrospective quantitative cross-sectional study conducted in 11 health centers and dispensaries in Lindi and Mtwara rural districts. Cost analysis was carried out using step down cost accounting technique. Unit costs reflected efficiency of service provision. Multivariate regression analysis on the drivers of observed relative efficiency in service provision between the study facilities was conducted. Reported personnel workload was also described. The health facilities spent on average 7 USD per capita in 2009. As expected, fewer resources were spent for service provision at dispensaries than at health centers. Personnel costs contributed a high approximate 44% to total costs. ANC and childbirth consumed approximately 11% and 12% of total costs; and 8% and 10% of reported service provision time respectively. On average, unit costs were rather high, 16 USD per ANC visit and 79.4 USD per childbirth. The unit costs showed variation in relative efficiency in providing the services between the health facilities. The results showed that efficiency in ANC depended on the number of staff, structural quality of care, process quality of care and perceived quality of care. Population-staff ratio and structural quality of basic emergency obstetric care services highly influenced childbirth efficiency. Differences in the efficiency of service provision present an opportunity for efficiency improvement. Taking into consideration client heterogeneity, quality improvements are possible and necessary. This will stimulate utilization of ANC and childbirth services in resource-constrained health facilities. Efficiency analyses through simple techniques such as measurement of unit costs should be made standard in health care provision, health managers can then use the performance results to gauge progress and reward efficiency through performance based incentives.

A ground-based method of assessing urban forest structure and ecosystem services

Treesearch

David J. Nowak; Daniel E. Crane; Jack C. Stevens; Robert E. Hoehn; Jeffrey T. Walton; Jerry Bond

2008-01-01

To properly manage urban forests, it is essential to have data on this important resource. An efficient means to obtain this information is to randomly sample urban areas. To help assess the urban forest structure (e.g., number of trees, species composition, tree sizes, health) and several functions (e.g., air pollution removal, carbon storage and sequestration), the...

Human resource management practices in a medical complex in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: assessing their impact on the retention of doctors.

PubMed

Longmore, Bruce; Ronnie, Linda

2014-03-26

Human resource management (HRM) practices have the potential to influence the retention of doctors in the public health sector. To explore the key human resource (HR) practices affecting doctors in a medical complex in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. We used an open-ended questionnaire to gather data from 75 doctors in this setting. The most important HR practices were paying salaries on time and accurately, the management of documentation, communication, HR staff showing that they respected and valued the doctors, and reimbursement for conferences and special leave requests. All these practices were judged to be poorly administered. Essential HR characteristics were ranked in the following order: task competence of HR staff, accountability, general HR efficiency, occupation-specific dispensation adjustments and performance management and development system efficiency, and availability of HR staff. All these characteristics were judged to be poor. HRM practices in this Eastern Cape medical complex were inadequate and a source of frustration. This lack of efficiency could lead to further problems with regard to retaining doctors in public sector service.

Online fault adaptive control for efficient resource management in Advanced Life Support Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abdelwahed, Sherif; Wu, Jian; Biswas, Gautam; Ramirez, John; Manders, Eric-J

2005-01-01

This article presents the design and implementation of a controller scheme for efficient resource management in Advanced Life Support Systems. In the proposed approach, a switching hybrid system model is used to represent the dynamics of the system components and their interactions. The operational specifications for the controller are represented by utility functions, and the corresponding resource management problem is formulated as a safety control problem. The controller is designed as a limited-horizon online supervisory controller that performs a limited forward search on the state-space of the system at each time step, and uses the utility functions to decide on the best action. The feasibility and accuracy of the online algorithm can be assessed at design time. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the scheme by running a set of experiments on the Reverse Osmosis (RO) subsystem of the Water Recovery System (WRS).

Online fault adaptive control for efficient resource management in Advanced Life Support Systems.

PubMed

Abdelwahed, Sherif; Wu, Jian; Biswas, Gautam; Ramirez, John; Manders, Eric-J

2005-01-01

This article presents the design and implementation of a controller scheme for efficient resource management in Advanced Life Support Systems. In the proposed approach, a switching hybrid system model is used to represent the dynamics of the system components and their interactions. The operational specifications for the controller are represented by utility functions, and the corresponding resource management problem is formulated as a safety control problem. The controller is designed as a limited-horizon online supervisory controller that performs a limited forward search on the state-space of the system at each time step, and uses the utility functions to decide on the best action. The feasibility and accuracy of the online algorithm can be assessed at design time. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the scheme by running a set of experiments on the Reverse Osmosis (RO) subsystem of the Water Recovery System (WRS).

An improved global wind resource estimate for integrated assessment models

DOE PAGES

Eurek, Kelly; Sullivan, Patrick; Gleason, Michael; ...

2017-11-25

This study summarizes initial steps to improving the robustness and accuracy of global renewable resource and techno-economic assessments for use in integrated assessment models. We outline a method to construct country-level wind resource supply curves, delineated by resource quality and other parameters. Using mesoscale reanalysis data, we generate estimates for wind quality, both terrestrial and offshore, across the globe. Because not all land or water area is suitable for development, appropriate database layers provide exclusions to reduce the total resource to its technical potential. We expand upon estimates from related studies by: using a globally consistent data source of uniquelymore » detailed wind speed characterizations; assuming a non-constant coefficient of performance for adjusting power curves for altitude; categorizing the distance from resource sites to the electric power grid; and characterizing offshore exclusions on the basis of sea ice concentrations. The product, then, is technical potential by country, classified by resource quality as determined by net capacity factor. Additional classifications dimensions are available, including distance to transmission networks for terrestrial wind and distance to shore and water depth for offshore. We estimate the total global wind generation potential of 560 PWh for terrestrial wind with 90% of resource classified as low-to-mid quality, and 315 PWh for offshore wind with 67% classified as mid-to-high quality. These estimates are based on 3.5 MW composite wind turbines with 90 m hub heights, 0.95 availability, 90% array efficiency, and 5 MW/km 2 deployment density in non-excluded areas. We compare the underlying technical assumption and results with other global assessments.« less

An improved global wind resource estimate for integrated assessment models

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Eurek, Kelly; Sullivan, Patrick; Gleason, Michael

This study summarizes initial steps to improving the robustness and accuracy of global renewable resource and techno-economic assessments for use in integrated assessment models. We outline a method to construct country-level wind resource supply curves, delineated by resource quality and other parameters. Using mesoscale reanalysis data, we generate estimates for wind quality, both terrestrial and offshore, across the globe. Because not all land or water area is suitable for development, appropriate database layers provide exclusions to reduce the total resource to its technical potential. We expand upon estimates from related studies by: using a globally consistent data source of uniquelymore » detailed wind speed characterizations; assuming a non-constant coefficient of performance for adjusting power curves for altitude; categorizing the distance from resource sites to the electric power grid; and characterizing offshore exclusions on the basis of sea ice concentrations. The product, then, is technical potential by country, classified by resource quality as determined by net capacity factor. Additional classifications dimensions are available, including distance to transmission networks for terrestrial wind and distance to shore and water depth for offshore. We estimate the total global wind generation potential of 560 PWh for terrestrial wind with 90% of resource classified as low-to-mid quality, and 315 PWh for offshore wind with 67% classified as mid-to-high quality. These estimates are based on 3.5 MW composite wind turbines with 90 m hub heights, 0.95 availability, 90% array efficiency, and 5 MW/km 2 deployment density in non-excluded areas. We compare the underlying technical assumption and results with other global assessments.« less

Report: EPA Has Made Progress in Assessing Historical Lead Smelter Sites But Needs to Strengthen Procedures

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Report #14-P-0302, June 17, 2014. Improvements in guidance and procedures for managing contaminated sites could result in more efficient and effective use of limited resources and result in public health and economic benefits.

Assessing the Multiple Benefits of Clean Energy: A Resource for States

EPA Science Inventory

Clean energy provides multiple benefits. The Multiple Benefits Guide provides an overview of the environmental, energy system and economic benefits of clean energy, specifically energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean distributed generation, and why it is important to thin...

Hospital employee job resourcefulness: an empirical study and implications for health care marketing.

PubMed

Harris, Eric G; Artis, Andrew B; Fogliasso, Chris; Fleming, David E

2007-01-01

In today's competitive hospital marketing environment, it is imperative that administrators ensure that their hospitals are operating as efficiently and as effectively as possible. "Doing more with less" has become a mandate for hospital administrators and employees. The current research replicates and extends previous work devoted to this topic by examining the job resourcefulness construct in a hospital setting. Job resourcefulness, an individual difference variable, assesses the degree to which employees are able to overcome resource constraints in the pursuit of job-related goals. The work builds upon previous work and contributes to the hospital marketing literature by examining the relationships between resourcefulness, personality influencers, role stressors, and job tenure. Research implications and suggestions for future work in the area are presented.

Remote Sensing Assessment of Lunar Resources: We Know Where to Go to Find What We Need

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gillis, J. J.; Taylor, G. J.; Lucey, P. G.

2004-01-01

The utilization of space resources is necessary to not only foster the growth of human activities in space, but is essential to the President s vision of a "sustained and affordable human and robotic program to explore the solar system and beyond." The distribution of resources will shape planning permanent settlements by affecting decisions about where to locate a settlement. Mapping the location of such resources, however, is not the limiting factor in selecting a site for a lunar base. It is indecision about which resources to use that leaves the location uncertain. A wealth of remotely sensed data exists that can be used to identify targets for future detailed exploration. Thus, the future of space resource utilization pre-dominantly rests upon developing a strategy for resource exploration and efficient methods of extraction.

Disease-management partnership functioning, synergy and effectiveness in delivering chronic-illness care.

PubMed

Cramm, Jane Murray; Nieboer, Anna Petra

2012-06-01

This study explored associations among disease-management partnership functioning, synergy and effectiveness in the delivery of chronic-illness care. This study had a cross-sectional design. The study sample consists of 218 professionals (out of 393) participating in 22 disease-management partnerships in various regions of the Netherlands. We assessed the relationships among partnership functioning, synergy and effectiveness in the delivery of chronic-illness care. Partnership functioning was assessed through leadership, resources, administration and efficiency. Synergy was considered the proximal outcome of partnership functioning, which, in turn, influenced the effectiveness of disease-management partnerships [measured with the Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (ACIC) survey instrument]. Overall ACIC scores ranged from 3 to 10, indicating basic/intermediate to optimal/comprehensive delivery of chronic-illness care. The results of the regression analysis demonstrate that partnership effectiveness was positively associated with leadership (β = 0.25; P≤ 0.01), and resources (β = 0.31; P≤ 0.001). No significant relationship was found between administration, efficiency and partnership effectiveness. Partnership synergy acted as a mediator for partnership functioning and was statistically significantly associated with partnership effectiveness (β = 0.25; P≤ 0.001). Disease-management partnerships seemed better able to deliver higher levels of chronic-illness care when synergy is created between partners. Synergy was more likely to emerge with boundary-spanning leaders who understood and appreciated partners' different perspectives, could bridge their diverse cultures and were comfortable sharing ideas, resources and power. In addition, the acknowledgement of and ability to use members' resources are valuable in engaging partners' involvement and achieving synergy in disease-management partnerships.

Analysis of labor employment assessment on production machine to minimize time production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hernawati, Tri; Suliawati; Sari Gumay, Vita

2018-03-01

Every company both in the field of service and manufacturing always trying to pass efficiency of it’s resource use. One resource that has an important role is labor. Labor has different efficiency levels for different jobs anyway. Problems related to the optimal allocation of labor that has different levels of efficiency for different jobs are called assignment problems, which is a special case of linear programming. In this research, Analysis of Labor Employment Assesment on Production Machine to Minimize Time Production, in PT PDM is done by using Hungarian algorithm. The aim of the research is to get the assignment of optimal labor on production machine to minimize time production. The results showed that the assignment of existing labor is not suitable because the time of completion of the assignment is longer than the assignment by using the Hungarian algorithm. By applying the Hungarian algorithm obtained time savings of 16%.

From chemical risk assessment to environmental resources management: the challenge for mining.

PubMed

Voulvoulis, Nikolaos; Skolout, John W F; Oates, Christopher J; Plant, Jane A

2013-11-01

On top of significant improvements and progress made through science and engineering in the last century to increase efficiency and reduce impacts of mining to the environment, risk assessment has an important role to play in further reducing such impacts and preventing and mitigating risks. This paper reflects on how risk assessment can improve planning, monitoring and management in mining and mineral processing operations focusing on the importance of better understanding source-pathway-receptor linkages for all stages of mining. However, in light of the ever-growing consumption and demand for raw materials from mining, the need to manage environmental resources more sustainably is becoming increasingly important. The paper therefore assesses how mining can form an integral part of wider sustainable resources management, with the need for re-assessing the potential of mining in the context of sustainable management of natural capital, and with a renewed focus on its the role from a systems perspective. The need for understanding demand and pressure on resources, followed by appropriate pricing that is inclusive of all environmental costs, with new opportunities for mining in the wastes we generate, is also discussed. Findings demonstrate the need for a life cycle perspective in closing the loop between mining, production, consumption and waste generation as the way forward.

Data accuracy assessment using enterprise architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Närman, Per; Holm, Hannes; Johnson, Pontus; König, Johan; Chenine, Moustafa; Ekstedt, Mathias

2011-02-01

Errors in business processes result in poor data accuracy. This article proposes an architecture analysis method which utilises ArchiMate and the Probabilistic Relational Model formalism to model and analyse data accuracy. Since the resources available for architecture analysis are usually quite scarce, the method advocates interviews as the primary data collection technique. A case study demonstrates that the method yields correct data accuracy estimates and is more resource-efficient than a competing sampling-based data accuracy estimation method.

Technical efficiency of public district hospitals in Madhya Pradesh, India: a data envelopment analysis.

PubMed

Jat, Tej Ram; Sebastian, Miguel San

2013-09-24

Scarcity of resources for healthcare is a well-acknowledged problem. In this context, efficient utilization of existing financial and human resources becomes crucial for strengthening the healthcare delivery. The assessment of efficiency of health facilities can guide decision makers in ensuring the optimum utilization of available resources. The objective of this study was to evaluate the technical efficiency (TE) of the public district hospitals in Madhya Pradesh, India, with special emphasis on maternal healthcare services, using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Data from 40 district hospitals from January to December 2010 were collected from the health management information system and other records of the department of health and family welfare of the state. DEA was performed with input orientation and variable returns to scale assumption. TE and scale efficiency scores of the district hospitals were 0.90 (SD = 0.14) and 0.88 (SD = 0.15), respectively. Of the total district hospitals in the study, 20 (50%) were technically efficient constituting the 'best practice frontier'. The other half were technically inefficient, with an average TE score of 0.79 (SD = 0.12) meaning that these hospitals could produce the same outputs by using 21% less inputs from current input levels. Twenty-six (65%) district hospitals were found to be scale inefficient, manifesting a mean score of 0.81 (SD = 0.16). Half of the district hospitals in the study were operating inefficiently. Decision makers and administrators in the state should identify the causes of the observed inefficiencies and take appropriate measures to increase efficiency of these hospitals.

Health resource allocation and productive efficiency of Chinese county hospitals: data from 1993 to 2005.

PubMed

Gai, Ruoyan Y; Zhou, Chengchao C; Xu, Lingzhong Z; Zhu, Min; Wang, Xingzhou Z; Li, Shixue X; Zheng, Wengui G; Song, Peipei P; Yang, Xuelai L; Fang, Liyi Y; Zhen, Yancheng C; Tang, Wei

2010-10-01

This study aims to assess trends in the productive efficiency of China's county hospitals during the economic transition using data from 1993 to 2005. A data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework was used to calculate the efficiency score of county hospitals in all 31 provinces. A C²R model and a BC² model were devised to respectively calculate overall and scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency at the hospital's current scale. Models included four inputs (number of medical staff; number of beds; value of fixed capital; and hospital expenditures) and three outputs (outpatient and emergency visits, number of inpatients, and hospital revenue) in total. As the results, geographical disparities in health resource allocation and county hospital productivity were noted. From 1993 to 2005, the number of county hospitals increased and their inputs, e.g. fixed capital in particular, grew rapidly. However, the amount of both outpatient and inpatient services declined somewhat especially in the middle and the western regions. The overall efficiency at the national level decreased slightly. County hospitals in the eastern region tended to have better overall, scale, and technical efficiency in comparison to the middle and the western regions. In conclusion, county hospitals are inefficient due to their enlarged scale and the reduced amount of health care services they provide. This issue should be addressed especially in the middle and the western regions, where health resources are far more limited and yet wasted. The effects of ongoing health sector reform on the productivity of county hospitals must be monitored and evaluated.

Biodiversity influences plant productivity through niche-efficiency.

PubMed

Liang, Jingjing; Zhou, Mo; Tobin, Patrick C; McGuire, A David; Reich, Peter B

2015-05-05

The loss of biodiversity is threatening ecosystem productivity and services worldwide, spurring efforts to quantify its effects on the functioning of natural ecosystems. Previous research has focused on the positive role of biodiversity on resource acquisition (i.e., niche complementarity), but a lack of study on resource utilization efficiency, a link between resource and productivity, has rendered it difficult to quantify the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship. Here we demonstrate that biodiversity loss reduces plant productivity, other things held constant, through theory, empirical evidence, and simulations under gradually relaxed assumptions. We developed a theoretical model named niche-efficiency to integrate niche complementarity and a heretofore-ignored mechanism of diminishing marginal productivity in quantifying the effects of biodiversity loss on plant productivity. Based on niche-efficiency, we created a relative productivity metric and a productivity impact index (PII) to assist in biological conservation and resource management. Relative productivity provides a standardized measure of the influence of biodiversity on individual productivity, and PII is a functionally based taxonomic index to assess individual species' inherent value in maintaining current ecosystem productivity. Empirical evidence from the Alaska boreal forest suggests that every 1% reduction in overall plant diversity could render an average of 0.23% decline in individual tree productivity. Out of the 283 plant species of the region, we found that large woody plants generally have greater PII values than other species. This theoretical model would facilitate the integration of biological conservation in the international campaign against several pressing global issues involving energy use, climate change, and poverty.

Biodiversity influences plant productivity through niche–efficiency

PubMed Central

Liang, Jingjing; Zhou, Mo; Tobin, Patrick C.; McGuire, A. David; Reich, Peter B.

2015-01-01

The loss of biodiversity is threatening ecosystem productivity and services worldwide, spurring efforts to quantify its effects on the functioning of natural ecosystems. Previous research has focused on the positive role of biodiversity on resource acquisition (i.e., niche complementarity), but a lack of study on resource utilization efficiency, a link between resource and productivity, has rendered it difficult to quantify the biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationship. Here we demonstrate that biodiversity loss reduces plant productivity, other things held constant, through theory, empirical evidence, and simulations under gradually relaxed assumptions. We developed a theoretical model named niche–efficiency to integrate niche complementarity and a heretofore-ignored mechanism of diminishing marginal productivity in quantifying the effects of biodiversity loss on plant productivity. Based on niche–efficiency, we created a relative productivity metric and a productivity impact index (PII) to assist in biological conservation and resource management. Relative productivity provides a standardized measure of the influence of biodiversity on individual productivity, and PII is a functionally based taxonomic index to assess individual species’ inherent value in maintaining current ecosystem productivity. Empirical evidence from the Alaska boreal forest suggests that every 1% reduction in overall plant diversity could render an average of 0.23% decline in individual tree productivity. Out of the 283 plant species of the region, we found that large woody plants generally have greater PII values than other species. This theoretical model would facilitate the integration of biological conservation in the international campaign against several pressing global issues involving energy use, climate change, and poverty. PMID:25901325

Biodiversity influences plant productivity through niche–efficiency

USGS Publications Warehouse

Liang, Jingjing; Zhou, Mo; Tobin, Patrick C.; McGuire, A. David; Reich, Peter B.

2015-01-01

The loss of biodiversity is threatening ecosystem productivity and services worldwide, spurring efforts to quantify its effects on the functioning of natural ecosystems. Previous research has focused on the positive role of biodiversity on resource acquisition (i.e., niche complementarity), but a lack of study on resource utilization efficiency, a link between resource and productivity, has rendered it difficult to quantify the biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationship. Here we demonstrate that biodiversity loss reduces plant productivity, other things held constant, through theory, empirical evidence, and simulations under gradually relaxed assumptions. We developed a theoretical model named niche–efficiency to integrate niche complementarity and a heretofore-ignored mechanism of diminishing marginal productivity in quantifying the effects of biodiversity loss on plant productivity. Based on niche–efficiency, we created a relative productivity metric and a productivity impact index (PII) to assist in biological conservation and resource management. Relative productivity provides a standardized measure of the influence of biodiversity on individual productivity, and PII is a functionally based taxonomic index to assess individual species’ inherent value in maintaining current ecosystem productivity. Empirical evidence from the Alaska boreal forest suggests that every 1% reduction in overall plant diversity could render an average of 0.23% decline in individual tree productivity. Out of the 283 plant species of the region, we found that large woody plants generally have greater PII values than other species. This theoretical model would facilitate the integration of biological conservation in the international campaign against several pressing global issues involving energy use, climate change, and poverty.

Energy Savings Lifetimes and Persistence

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hoffman, Ian M.; Schiller, Steven R.; Todd, Annika

2016-02-01

This technical brief explains the concepts of energy savings lifetimes and savings persistence and discusses how program administrators use these factors to calculate savings for efficiency measures, programs and portfolios. Savings lifetime is the length of time that one or more energy efficiency measures or activities save energy, and savings persistence is the change in savings throughout the functional life of a given efficiency measure or activity. Savings lifetimes are essential for assessing the lifecycle benefits and cost effectiveness of efficiency activities and for forecasting loads in resource planning. The brief also provides estimates of savings lifetimes derived from amore » national collection of costs and savings for electric efficiency programs and portfolios.« less

Newly emerging resource efficiency manager programs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wolf, S.; Howell, C.

1997-12-31

Many facilities in the northwest such as K--12 schools, community colleges, and military installations are implementing resource-efficiency awareness programs. These programs are generally referred to as resource efficiency manager (REM) or resource conservation manager (RCM) programs. Resource efficiency management is a systems approach to managing a facility`s energy, water, and solid waste. Its aim is to reduce utility budgets by focusing on behavioral changes, maintenance and operation procedures, resource accounting, education and training, and a comprehensive awareness campaign that involves everyone in the organization.

Assessment of windows on noise intrusion, energy efficiency, and indoor air quality for residential buildings near airports.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-06-01

The continuing increase in air traffic has implications for the preservation of our common : resources and causes global and micro-environmental pollution. This pollution affects public : health and causes damage to the prospects of future generation...

Predicting point-of-departure values from the ToxCast data (TDS)

EPA Science Inventory

There are less than two-thousand health assessments available for the tens of thousands of chemicals in commerce today. Traditional toxicity testing takes time, money, and resources leading in part to this large discrepancy. Faster and more efficient ways of understanding adverse...

"More drop per crop" when moving from gravitational to drip irrigated agriculture? Experiences from a North Moroccan case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feltz, N.; Gaspart, F.; Vanclooster, M.

2015-12-01

In order to save agricultural water, the famous FAO's "more crop per drop" has been taken literally in many arid or semi-arid places around the world and policies that aim improving "efficiencies" (irrigation efficiency…) have been implemented, often leading to the promotion of water saving technologies. In 1865, studying coal consumption, W.S. Jevons highlighted that improving coal use efficiency could, as a paradox, lead to higher global coal use. Many economists later extended this idea to resource saving technologies in general, showing that, due to the "rebound effect", the adoption of more efficient technologies, in terms of use of resources, could lead to a higher global consumption of this resource if this adoption didn't go with adjustment measures. Regarding these considerations, the emerging question is to which extent water saving technologies (i.e. that aim improving water related efficiencies) are appropriate to save water at large scale. Our study addresses this question through the analysis of the conversion from surface to drip irrigation in Triffa's irrigated perimeter (Morocco). We aim addressing this question using the detailed analysis of two data sets. First, available data were collected for every farm within the study area from the local administrations. Second, interviews were conducted with farmers to complete the dataset and to characterize their behavior. This allowed assessing water related efficiencies at farm scale. Subsequently, models were implemented to link efficiencies with general attributes and thereby identify the main drivers of water related efficiencies in the study area. Finally, these models were used to upscale farm-scale assessment to the perimeter scale. Our results show that, under current conditions, moving from surface to drip irrigation leads to higher global water withdrawal. However, the aforementioned "rebound effect" does not allow explaining the higher pressure because of contextual specificities. Deeper analysis suggests that economic but also social and psychological issues need to be considered in this transition process. To fully achieve the expected results from moving to drip irrigation, those issues must be dealt with and the transition to drip irrigation must go hand in hand with stewardship programs and appropriate farmers capacity building.

Workshop Summary Proceedings Document: G7 Alliance on Resource Efficiency: U.S.-hosted Workshop on the Use of Life Cycle Concepts in Supply Chain Management to Achieve Resource Efficiency

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This proceedings document summarizes prepared remarks, presentations and discussions from the G7 Alliance on Resource Efficiency: U.S.-hosted Workshop on the Use of Life Cycle Concepts in Supply Chain Management to Achieve Resource Efficiency.

Efficient funding: a path to improving Aboriginal healthcare in Australia?

PubMed

Lloyd, Jane E; Wise, Marilyn J

2010-11-01

To identify the factors that contribute to the under-resourcing of Aboriginal health and to explore the impact that funding arrangements have on the implementation of Aboriginal health policy. Qualitative study based on 35 in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of frontline health professionals involved in health policy and service provision in the Northern Territory. Participants described three factors that contributed to the under-resourcing of Aboriginal health: inefficient funding arrangements, mainstream programs being inappropriate for Aboriginal Australians, and competing interests determining the allocation of resources. Insufficient capacity within the healthcare system undermines the multilevel implementation process whereby organisations need to have the capacity to recognise new policy ideas, assess their relevance to their existing work and strategic plan and to be able to incorporate the relevant new ideas into day-to-day practice. Insufficient resources for Aboriginal health were found to be a barrier to implementing Aboriginal health policy. Inadequate resources result from the cumbersome allocation of funding rather than simply the amount of funding provided to Aboriginal healthcare. Monitoring government performance and ensuring the efficient allocation of funds would allow us to develop the delivery system for Aboriginal healthcare and therefore provide greater opportunities to capitalise on current interventions and future efforts.

International Trade Drives Global Resource Use: A Structural Decomposition Analysis of Raw Material Consumption from 1990-2010.

PubMed

Plank, Barbara; Eisenmenger, Nina; Schaffartzik, Anke; Wiedenhofer, Dominik

2018-04-03

Globalization led to an immense increase of international trade and the emergence of complex global value chains. At the same time, global resource use and pressures on the environment are increasing steadily. With these two processes in parallel, the question arises whether trade contributes positively to resource efficiency, or to the contrary is further driving resource use? In this article, the socioeconomic driving forces of increasing global raw material consumption (RMC) are investigated to assess the role of changing trade relations, extended supply chains and increasing consumption. We apply a structural decomposition analysis of changes in RMC from 1990 to 2010, utilizing the Eora multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model. We find that changes in international trade patterns significantly contributed to an increase of global RMC. Wealthy developed countries play a major role in driving global RMC growth through changes in their trade structures, as they shifted production processes increasingly to less material-efficient input suppliers. Even the dramatic increase in material consumption in the emerging economies has not diminished the role of industrialized countries as drivers of global RMC growth.

An emulator for minimizing finite element analysis implementation resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Melosh, R. J.; Utku, S.; Salama, M.; Islam, M.

1982-01-01

A finite element analysis emulator providing a basis for efficiently establishing an optimum computer implementation strategy when many calculations are involved is described. The SCOPE emulator determines computer resources required as a function of the structural model, structural load-deflection equation characteristics, the storage allocation plan, and computer hardware capabilities. Thereby, it provides data for trading analysis implementation options to arrive at a best strategy. The models contained in SCOPE lead to micro-operation computer counts of each finite element operation as well as overall computer resource cost estimates. Application of SCOPE to the Memphis-Arkansas bridge analysis provides measures of the accuracy of resource assessments. Data indicate that predictions are within 17.3 percent for calculation times and within 3.2 percent for peripheral storage resources for the ELAS code.

An Improved Global Wind Resource Estimate for Integrated Assessment Models: Preprint

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Eurek, Kelly; Sullivan, Patrick; Gleason, Michael

This paper summarizes initial steps to improving the robustness and accuracy of global renewable resource and techno-economic assessments for use in integrated assessment models. We outline a method to construct country-level wind resource supply curves, delineated by resource quality and other parameters. Using mesoscale reanalysis data, we generate estimates for wind quality, both terrestrial and offshore, across the globe. Because not all land or water area is suitable for development, appropriate database layers provide exclusions to reduce the total resource to its technical potential. We expand upon estimates from related studies by: using a globally consistent data source of uniquelymore » detailed wind speed characterizations; assuming a non-constant coefficient of performance for adjusting power curves for altitude; categorizing the distance from resource sites to the electric power grid; and characterizing offshore exclusions on the basis of sea ice concentrations. The product, then, is technical potential by country, classified by resource quality as determined by net capacity factor. Additional classifications dimensions are available, including distance to transmission networks for terrestrial wind and distance to shore and water depth for offshore. We estimate the total global wind generation potential of 560 PWh for terrestrial wind with 90% of resource classified as low-to-mid quality, and 315 PWh for offshore wind with 67% classified as mid-to-high quality. These estimates are based on 3.5 MW composite wind turbines with 90 m hub heights, 0.95 availability, 90% array efficiency, and 5 MW/km2 deployment density in non-excluded areas. We compare the underlying technical assumption and results with other global assessments.« less

Research on the water resources regulation ability model of dams in the Huai He River Basin considering ecological and management factors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shui, Y.; Liu, H. C.; Li, L. H.; Yu, G. G.; Liu, J.

2016-08-01

Research that assesses the scheduling ability of dams gamers a great deal of attention due to the global water resource crisis. These studies can provide useful and practical suggestions for scheduling the water resources of dams to solve problems, such as addressing ecological water needs and so on. Recent studies have primarily evaluated the schedule ability of dams according to their quantifiable attributes, such as water quantity, flow velocity, etc. However, the ecological and management status can directly determine the possibility and efficiency of a dam's water resource scheduling. This paper presents an evaluation model to assess the scheduling capacity of dams that takes into consideration ecological and management factors. In the experiment stage, this paper takes the Sha Ying river of the Huai He River Basin as an example to evaluate the scheduling ability of its dams. The results indicate that the proposed evaluation model can provide more precise and practical suggestions.

CBM Resources/reserves classification and evaluation based on PRMS rules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fa, Guifang; Yuan, Ruie; Wang, Zuoqian; Lan, Jun; Zhao, Jian; Xia, Mingjun; Cai, Dechao; Yi, Yanjing

2018-02-01

This paper introduces a set of definitions and classification requirements for coalbed methane (CBM) resources/reserves, based on Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS). The basic CBM classification criterions of 1P, 2P, 3P and contingent resources are put forward from the following aspects: ownership, project maturity, drilling requirements, testing requirements, economic requirements, infrastructure and market, timing of production and development, and so on. The volumetric method is used to evaluate the OGIP, with focuses on analyses of key parameters and principles of the parameter selection, such as net thickness, ash and water content, coal rank and composition, coal density, cleat volume and saturation and absorbed gas content etc. A dynamic method is used to assess the reserves and recovery efficiency. Since the differences in rock and fluid properties, displacement mechanism, completion and operating practices and wellbore type resulted in different production curve characteristics, the factors affecting production behavior, the dewatering period, pressure build-up and interference effects were analyzed. The conclusion and results that the paper achieved can be used as important references for reasonable assessment of CBM resources/reserves.

Databases, data integration, and expert systems: new directions in mineral resource assessment and mineral exploration

USGS Publications Warehouse

McCammon, Richard B.; Ramani, Raja V.; Mozumdar, Bijoy K.; Samaddar, Arun B.

1994-01-01

Overcoming future difficulties in searching for ore deposits deeper in the earth's crust will require closer attention to the collection and analysis of more diverse types of data and to more efficient use of current computer technologies. Computer technologies of greatest interest include methods of storage and retrieval of resource information, methods for integrating geologic, geochemical, and geophysical data, and the introduction of advanced computer technologies such as expert systems, multivariate techniques, and neural networks. Much experience has been gained in the past few years in applying these technologies. More experience is needed if they are to be implemented for everyday use in future assessments and exploration.

Cluster analysis as a tool for evaluating the exploration potential of Known Geothermal Resource Areas

DOE PAGES

Lindsey, Cary R.; Neupane, Ghanashym; Spycher, Nicolas; ...

2018-01-03

Although many Known Geothermal Resource Areas in Oregon and Idaho were identified during the 1970s and 1980s, few were subsequently developed commercially. Because of advances in power plant design and energy conversion efficiency since the 1980s, some previously identified KGRAs may now be economically viable prospects. Unfortunately, available characterization data vary widely in accuracy, precision, and granularity, making assessments problematic. In this paper, we suggest a procedure for comparing test areas against proven resources using Principal Component Analysis and cluster identification. The result is a low-cost tool for evaluating potential exploration targets using uncertain or incomplete data.

Cluster analysis as a tool for evaluating the exploration potential of Known Geothermal Resource Areas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lindsey, Cary R.; Neupane, Ghanashym; Spycher, Nicolas

Although many Known Geothermal Resource Areas in Oregon and Idaho were identified during the 1970s and 1980s, few were subsequently developed commercially. Because of advances in power plant design and energy conversion efficiency since the 1980s, some previously identified KGRAs may now be economically viable prospects. Unfortunately, available characterization data vary widely in accuracy, precision, and granularity, making assessments problematic. In this paper, we suggest a procedure for comparing test areas against proven resources using Principal Component Analysis and cluster identification. The result is a low-cost tool for evaluating potential exploration targets using uncertain or incomplete data.

20180312 - Evaluating the applicability of read-across tools and high throughput screening data for food relevant chemicals (SOT)

EPA Science Inventory

Alternative toxicity assessment methods to characterize the hazards of chemical substances have been proposed to reduce animal testing and screen thousands of chemicals in an efficient manner. Resources to accomplish these goals include utilizing large in vitro chemical screening...

What Influences Spending on Education? Education Indicators in Focus. No. 46

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

OECD Publishing, 2016

2016-01-01

The challenge of providing more and better education with tightening public budgets has made governments increasingly interested in the efficient allocation of education resources. Results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) show that, among countries with a comparatively high gross domestic product (GDP) per…

Searching for Hidden Costs: A Technology-Based Approach to the Energy Efficiency Gap in Light-Duty Vehicles, Presentation made at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Annual Conference

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This presentation contains research on consumer issues, including an assessment of vehicle affordability, a study of willingness-to-pay for various vehicle attributes, and content analysis of auto reviews.

Complementing in vitro hazard assessment with exposure and pharmacokinetics considerations for chemical prioritization

EPA Science Inventory

Traditional toxicity testing involves a large investment in resources, often using low-throughput in vivo animal studies for limited numbers of chemicals. An alternative strategy is the emergence of high-throughput (HT) in vitro assays as a rapid, cost-efficient means to screen t...

78 FR 8444 - Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program Programmatic Environmental Assessment

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-06

... Recipients' service territories (Ultimate Recipients) for EE improvements at the Ultimate Recipients... area of previous disturbance, but a review of National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) soils maps shows that the Ultimate Recipient's premises is not within a hydric soil unit which is one of the three...

Approaches to the Organization of the Energy Efficient Activity at the Regional Level in the Context of Limited Budget Resources during the Transformation of Energy Market Paradigm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vakulenko, Ihor; Myroshnychenko, Iuliia

2015-12-01

The research is devoted to the problem of the assessment of the integrated projects investment efficiency, energy saving and energy efficiency measures for social and municipal buildings within the course aimed at the reduction of the natural gas consumption and its replacement by alternative fuel types, that is important for a number of European countries, and Ukraine in particular. The objectives of the research are as follows: comparative assessment of the quality of integrated and element-by-element approaches to energy saving encompassing investment, environmental, social and organizational aspects; the formulation of practical recommendations to improve the efficiency of development and implementation of integrated programs in the field of energy saving and energy efficiency. It is proposed to use the methodology of system analysis with the elements of deduction that is practical and that allows to set key factors that influence the processes of energy replacement and energy efficiency increase, as well as factors that constrain them.

Developing an educational video on lung lobectomy for the general surgery resident.

PubMed

Hayden, Emily L; Seagull, F Jacob; Reddy, Rishindra M

2015-06-15

The educational resources available to general surgery residents preparing for complex thoracic surgeries vary greatly in content and target audience. We hypothesized that the preparatory resources could be improved in both efficiency of use and targeting. A formal needs analysis was performed to determine residents' knowledge gaps and desired format and/or content of an educational tool while preparing for their first lung resections. The results of the needs assessment then guided the creation of a 20-min video tool. The video was evaluated by a focus group of experts for appropriateness to the target audience, ease of use, and relevance. The needs assessment illustrated that residents feel there is a paucity of appropriate resources available to them while preparing for the lung resection procedure; 82% of respondents felt that easy-to-use and concise resources on the lobectomy procedure were either "not at all" or "somewhat" accessible. Residents reported that video was their preferred format for a learning tool overall and identified a broad spectrum of most challenging procedural aspects. These results were used to guide the creation of a 20-min video tool. A focus group validated the efficacy and appropriateness of the video. Targeted and efficient tools for residents preparing for complex subspecialty procedures are needed and valued. These results clearly encourage further work in the creation of focused educational tools for surgical residents, especially in the format of short video overviews. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mission Adaptive Uas Capabilities for Earth Science and Resource Assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dunagan, S.; Fladeland, M.; Ippolito, C.; Knudson, M.; Young, Z.

2015-04-01

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are important assets for accessing high risk airspace and incorporate technologies for sensor coordination, onboard processing, tele-communication, unconventional flight control, and ground based monitoring and optimization. These capabilities permit adaptive mission management in the face of complex requirements and chaotic external influences. NASA Ames Research Center has led a number of Earth science remote sensing missions directed at the assessment of natural resources and here we describe two resource mapping problems having mission characteristics requiring a mission adaptive capability extensible to other resource assessment challenges. One example involves the requirement for careful control over solar angle geometry for passive reflectance measurements. This constraint exists when collecting imaging spectroscopy data over vegetation for time series analysis or for the coastal ocean where solar angle combines with sea state to produce surface glint that can obscure the signal. Furthermore, the primary flight control imperative to minimize tracking error should compromise with the requirement to minimize aircraft motion artifacts in the spatial measurement distribution. A second example involves mapping of natural resources in the Earth's crust using precision magnetometry. In this case the vehicle flight path must be oriented to optimize magnetic flux gradients over a spatial domain having continually emerging features, while optimizing the efficiency of the spatial mapping task. These requirements were highlighted in recent Earth Science missions including the OCEANIA mission directed at improving the capability for spectral and radiometric reflectance measurements in the coastal ocean, and the Surprise Valley Mission directed at mapping sub-surface mineral composition and faults, using high-sensitivity magnetometry. This paper reports the development of specific aircraft control approaches to incorporate the unusual and demanding requirements to manage solar angle, aircraft attitude and flight path orientation, and efficient (directly geo-rectified) surface and sub-surface mapping, including the near-time optimization of these sometimes competing requirements.

Empirical Research on Ecological Development Level of Resource-based Industries-Base on the data of the Silk Road Economic Belt Core Zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Lei; Yan, Min

2017-11-01

Industrial ecology is the epitome of sustainable development in industry level, is one effective gateway to realizing green transformation. On the basis of industrial ecology development, including resource efficiency and environmental efficiency of ecological evaluation index system, this paper evaluates the level of industrial ecology development of resource-based industries in Xinjiang using entropy method. Research shows that the overall ecological development level of resource-based industries has remained at continuous improved trend with slow improvement in resource efficiency, and relative faster improvement in environmental efficiency. With economic development entering into the period of new normal at the end of the “twelfth five year plan”, the resource efficiency of ecological development of resource-based industries demonstrated a downward trend. The overall level of industrial ecology also faced with certain fluctuations, various ecological development level of resource-based industries also presented a downward trend. To promote ecological development of resource-based industries in Xinjiang, countermeasures and suggestions are initiated.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Flory, John Andrew; Padilla, Denise D.; Gauthier, John H.

Upcoming weapon programs require an aggressive increase in Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) production at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). SNL has developed unique modeling and optimization tools that have been instrumental in improving ASIC production productivity and efficiency, identifying optimal operational and tactical execution plans under resource constraints, and providing confidence in successful mission execution. With ten products and unprecedented levels of demand, a single set of shared resources, highly variable processes, and the need for external supplier task synchronization, scheduling is an integral part of successful manufacturing. The scheduler uses an iterative multi-objective genetic algorithm and a multi-dimensional performancemore » evaluator. Schedule feasibility is assessed using a discrete event simulation (DES) that incorporates operational uncertainty, variability, and resource availability. The tools provide rapid scenario assessments and responses to variances in the operational environment, and have been used to inform major equipment investments and workforce planning decisions in multiple SNL facilities.« less

Future Opportunities and Challenges with Using Demand Response as a Resource in Distribution System Operation and Planning Activities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cappers, Peter; MacDonald, Jason; Page, Janie

2016-01-01

This scoping study focuses on identifying the ability for current and future demand response opportunities to contribute to distribution system management. To do so, this scoping study will identify the needs of a distribution system to operate efficiently, safely and reliably; summarize both benefits and challenges for the operation of the distribution system with high penetration levels of distributed energy resources; define a suite of services based on those changing operational needs that could be provided by resources; identify existing demand response opportunities sponsored by distribution utilities and/or aggregators of retail customers; assess the extent to which distribution system servicesmore » can be provided via DR opportunities both in their current form and with alterations to their design; and provide a qualitative assessment of coordination issues that bulk power and distribution system providers of DR opportunities will need to address.« less

An integrated GIS/remote sensing data base in North Cache soil conservation district, Utah: A pilot project for the Utah Department of Agriculture's RIMS (Resource Inventory and Monitoring System)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wheeler, D. J.; Ridd, M. K.; Merola, J. A.

1984-01-01

A basic geographic information system (GIS) for the North Cache Soil Conservation District (SCD) was sought for selected resource problems. Since the resource management issues in the North Cache SCD are very complex, it is not feasible in the initial phase to generate all the physical, socioeconomic, and political baseline data needed for resolving all management issues. A selection of critical varables becomes essential. Thus, there are foud specific objectives: (1) assess resource management needs and determine which resource factors ae most fundamental for building a beginning data base; (2) evaluate the variety of data gathering and analysis techniques for the resource factors selected; (3) incorporate the resulting data into a useful and efficient digital data base; and (4) demonstrate the application of the data base to selected real world resoource management issues.

Assessing the Value of Regulation Resources Based on Their Time Response Characteristics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Makarov, Yuri V.; Lu, Shuai; Ma, Jian

2008-06-01

Fast responsive regulation resources are potentially more valuable as a power system regulation resource (more efficient) because they allow applying controls at the exact moment and in the exact amount as needed. Faster control is desirable because it facilitates more reliable compliance with the NERC Control Performance Standards at relatively lesser regulation capacity procurements. The current California ISO practices and markets do not provide a differentiation among the regulation resources based on their speed of response (with the exception of some minimum ramping capabilities). Some demand response technologies, including some generation and energy storage resources, can provide quicker control actions.more » California ISO practices and markets could be updated to welcome more fast regulation resources into the California ISO service area. The project work reported in this work was pursuing the following objectives: • Develop methodology to assess the relative value of generation resources used for regulation and load following California ISO functions • This assessment should be done based on physical characteristics including the ability to quickly change their output following California ISO signals • Evaluate what power is worth on different time scales • Analyze the benefits of new regulation resources to provide effective compliance with the mandatory NERC Control Performance Standards • Evaluate impacts of the newly proposed BAAL and FRR standards on the potential value of fast regulation and distributed regulation resources • Develop a scope for the follow-up projects to pave a road for the new efficient types of balancing resources in California. The work included the following studies: • Analysis of California ISO regulating units characteristics • California ISO automatic generation system (AGC) analysis • California ISO regulation procurement and market analysis • Fast regulation efficiency analysis • Projection of the California ISO load following and regulation requirements into the future • Value of fast responsive resources depending on their ramping capability • Potential impacts of the balancing authority area control error limit (BAAL), which is a part of the newly proposed NERC standard “Balancing Resources and Demand” • Potential impacts of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) frequency responsive reserve (FRR) standard • Recommendations for the next phase of the project. The following main conclusions and suggestions for the future have been made: • The analysis of regulation ramping requirements shows that the regulation system should be able to provide ramps of at least 40-60 MW per minute for a period up to 6 minutes. • Evaluate if changes are needed in the California ISO AGC system to effectively accommodate new types of fast regulation resources and minimize the California ISO regulation procurement. • California ISO may consider creating better market opportunities for and incentives for fast responsive resources. • An additional study of low probability high ramp events can be recommended to the California ISO. • The California ISO may be willing to consider establishing a more relaxed target CPS2 compliance level. • A BAAL-related study can be recommended for the California ISO as soon as more clarity is achieved concerning the actual enforcement of the BAAL standard and its numerical values for the California ISO. The study may involve an assessment of advantages of the distributed frequency-based control for the California ISO system. The market-related issues that arise in this connection can be also investigated. • A FRR-related study can be recommended for the California ISO as soon as more clarity is achieved concerning the actual enforcement of the FRR standard and its numerical values for the California ISO.« less

A Model of Carbon Capture and Storage with Demonstration of Global Warming Potential and Fossil Fuel Resource Use Efficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suebsiri, Jitsopa

Increasing greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere influences global climate change even though the level of impact is still unclear. Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is increasingly seen as an important component of broadly based greenhouse gas reduction measures. Although the other greenhouse gases are more potent, the sheer volume of CO 2 makes it dominant in term of its effect in the atmosphere. To understand the implications, CCS activities should be studied from a full life cycle perspective. This thesis outlines the successful achievement of the objectives of this study in conducting life cycle assessment (LCA), reviewing the carbon dioxide implications only, combining two energy systems, coal-fired electrical generations and CO2 used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). LCA is the primary approach used in this study to create a tool for CCS environmental evaluation. The Boundary Dam Power Station (BDPS) and the Weyburn-Midale CO 2 EOR Project in Saskatchewan, Canada, are studied and adopted as case scenarios to find the potential for effective application of CCS in both energy systems. This study demonstrates two levels of retrofitting of the BDPS, retrofit of unit 3 or retrofit of all units, combined with three options for CO 2 geological storage: deep saline aquifer, CO2 EOR, and a combination of deep saline aquifer storage and CO2 EOR. Energy output is considered the product of combining these two energy resources (coal and oil). Gigajoules (GJ) are used as the fundamental unit of measurement in comparing the combined energy types. The application of this tool effectively demonstrates the results of application of a CCS system concerning global warming potential (GWP) and fossil fuel resource use efficiency. Other environmental impacts could be analyzed with this tool as well. In addition, the results demonstrate that the GWP reduction is directly related to resource use efficiency. This means the lower the GWP of CCS, the lower resource use efficiency as well. Three processes, coal mining, power production including CO2 capture unit operation, and crude oil usage, must be included when the GWP of CCS is calculated. Moreover, the results from the sensitivity analysis of power generation efficiency present not only a significant reduction of GWP, but also a competitive solution for improving or at least preventing the decrease of fossil fuel resource use efficiency when CCS is applied.

National Guard and Reserves: Air Force Needs to Consistently Assess Personnel Requirements to Appropriately Size Its Headquarters Reserve Components

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-08-01

results to inform the number of recommended positions documented on their annual budget requests and respective manning documents. Moreover, these...assessment results help the Army and Air Force identify efficiencies, by redistributing work amongst fewer positions, and may present opportunities...functions,6 which they believe could result in identification of greater cost savings, and about DOD’s visibility into resources being devoted across

Wind and Solar Energy Resource Assessment for Navy Installations in the Midwestern US

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Darmenova, K.; Apling, D.; Higgins, G. J.; Carnes, J.; Smith, C.

2012-12-01

A stable supply of energy is critical for sustainable economic development and the ever-increasing demand for energy resources drives the need for alternative weather-driven renewable energy solutions such as solar and wind-generated power. Recognizing the importance of energy as a strategic resource, the Department of the Navy has focused on energy efficient solutions aiming to increase tactical and shore energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Implementing alternative energy solutions will alleviate the Navy installations demands on the National power grid, however transitioning to renewable energy sources is a complex multi-stage process that involves initial investment in resource assessment and feasibility of building solar and wind power systems in Navy's facilities. This study focuses on the wind and solar energy resource assessment for Navy installations in the Midwestern US. We use the dynamically downscaled datasets at 12 km resolution over the Continental US generated with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to derive the wind climatology in terms of wind speed, direction, and wind power at 20 m above the surface for 65 Navy facilities. In addition, we derived the transmissivity of the atmosphere, diffuse radiation fraction, cloud cover and seasonal energy potential for a zenith facing surface with unobstructed horizon for each installation location based on the results of a broadband radiative transfer model and our cloud database based on 17-years of GOES data. Our analysis was incorporated in a GIS framework in combination with additional infrastructure data that enabled a synergistic resource assessment based on the combination of climatological and engineering factors.

Energy Efficiency Resources to Support State Energy Planning

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Office of Strategic Programs, Strategic Priorities and Impact Analysis Team

An early step for most energy efficiency planning is to identify and quantify energy savings opportunities, and then to understand how to access this potential. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy offers resources that can help with both of these steps. This fact sheet presents those resources. The resources are also available on the DOE State and Local Solution Center on the "Energy Efficiency: Savings Opportunities and Benefits" page: https://energy.gov/eere/slsc/energy-efficiency-savings-opportunities-and-benefits.

Biosurfactants' Production from Renewable Natural Resources: Example of Innovativeand Smart Technology in Circular Bioeconomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Satpute, Surekha K.; Płaza, Grażyna A.; Banpurkar, Arun G.

2017-03-01

A strong developed bio-based industrial sector will significantly reduce dependency on fossil resources, help the countries meet climate change targets, and lead to greener and more environmental friendly growth. The key is to develop new technologies to sustainably transform renewable natural resources into bio-based products and biofuels. Biomass is a valuable resource and many parameters need to be taken in to account when assessing its use and the products made from its. The bioeconomy encompass the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into food, feed and bio-based products (chemicals, materials and fuels) via innovative and efficient technologies provided by industrial biotechnology. The paper presents the smart and efficient way to use the agro-industrial, dairy and food processing wastes for biosurfactant's production. Clarification processes are mandatory to use the raw substrates for microbial growth as well as biosurfactant production for commercial purposes. At the same time it is very essential to retain the nutritional values of those cheap substrates. Broad industrial perspectives can be achieved when quality as well as the quantity of the biosurfactant is considered in great depth. Since substrates resulting from food processing, dairy, animal fat industries are not explored in great details; and hence are potential areas which can be explored thoroughly.

Connecting the resource nexus to basic urban service provision – with a focus on water-energy interactions in New York City

DOE PAGES

Engström, Rebecka Ericsdotter; Howells, Mark; Destouni, Georgia; ...

2017-05-01

Urban water and energy systems are crucial for sustainably meeting basic service demands in cities. Therefore, this paper proposes and applies a technology-independent “reference resource-to-service system” framework for concurrent evaluation of urban water and energy system interventions and their ‘nexus’ or ‘interlinkages’. In a concrete application, data that approximate New York City conditions are used to evaluate a limited set of interventions in the residential sector, spanning from low-flow toilet shifts to extensive green roof installations. Results indicate that interventions motivated primarily by water management goals can considerably reduce energy use and contribute to mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly,more » energy efficiency interventions can considerably reduce water use in addition to lowering emissions. However, interventions yielding the greatest reductions in energy use and emissions are not necessarily the most water conserving ones, and vice versa. Useful further research, expanding the present analysis should consider a broader set of resource interactions, towards a full climate, land, energy and water (CLEW) nexus approach. Overall, assessing the impacts, trade-offs and co-benefits from interventions in one urban resource system on others also holds promise as support for increased resource efficiency through integrated decision making.« less

Looking Down Under for a Circular Economy of Indium.

PubMed

Werner, Tim T; Ciacci, Luca; Mudd, Gavin Mark; Reck, Barbara K; Northey, Stephen Alan

2018-02-20

Indium is a specialty metal crucial for modern technology, yet it is potentially critical due to its byproduct status in mining. Measures to reduce its criticality typically focus on improving its recycling efficiency at end-of-life. This study quantifies primary and secondary indium resources ("stocks") for Australia through a dynamic material-flow analysis. It is based on detailed assessments of indium mineral resources hosted in lead-zinc and copper deposits, respective mining activities from 1844 to 2013, and the trade of indium-containing products from 1988 to 2015. The results show that Australia's indium stocks are substantial, estimated at 46.2 kt in mineral resources and an additional 14.7 kt in mine wastes. Australian mineral resources alone could meet global demand (∼0.8 kt/year) for more than five decades. Discarded material from post-consumer products, instead, is negligible (43 t). This suggests that the resilience of Australia's indium supply can best be increased through efficiency gains in mining (such as introducing domestic indium refining capacity) rather than at the end of the product life. These findings likely also apply to other specialty metals, such as gallium or germanium, and other resource-dominated countries. Finally, the results illustrate that national circular economy strategies can differ substantially.

Connecting the resource nexus to basic urban service provision – with a focus on water-energy interactions in New York City

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Engström, Rebecka Ericsdotter; Howells, Mark; Destouni, Georgia

Urban water and energy systems are crucial for sustainably meeting basic service demands in cities. Therefore, this paper proposes and applies a technology-independent “reference resource-to-service system” framework for concurrent evaluation of urban water and energy system interventions and their ‘nexus’ or ‘interlinkages’. In a concrete application, data that approximate New York City conditions are used to evaluate a limited set of interventions in the residential sector, spanning from low-flow toilet shifts to extensive green roof installations. Results indicate that interventions motivated primarily by water management goals can considerably reduce energy use and contribute to mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly,more » energy efficiency interventions can considerably reduce water use in addition to lowering emissions. However, interventions yielding the greatest reductions in energy use and emissions are not necessarily the most water conserving ones, and vice versa. Useful further research, expanding the present analysis should consider a broader set of resource interactions, towards a full climate, land, energy and water (CLEW) nexus approach. Overall, assessing the impacts, trade-offs and co-benefits from interventions in one urban resource system on others also holds promise as support for increased resource efficiency through integrated decision making.« less

Verification of Accurate Technical Insight: A Prerequisite for Self-Directed Surgical Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Yinin; Kim, Helen; Mahmutovic, Adela; Choi, Joanna; Le, Ivy; Rasmussen, Sara

2015-01-01

Simulation-based surgical skills training during preclinical education is a persistent challenge due to time constraints of trainees and instructors alike. Self-directed practice is resource-efficient and flexible; however, insight into technical proficiency among trainees is often lacking. The purpose of this study is to prospectively assess the…

The First Step in Educational Problem Solving---A Systematic Assessment of Student Benefits.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sweigert, Ray L., Jr.

The limitations on educational resources and the increasing complexity in all phases of social organization demand that the educational process become more efficient and effective. A strong opinion among educators suggests that students can learn faster if the educational forces are applied systematically. To achieve this goal, learning objectives…

The environmental sustainability of microalgae as feed for aquaculture: a life cycle perspective.

PubMed

Taelman, S E; De Meester, S; Roef, L; Michiels, M; Dewulf, J

2013-12-01

The environmental sustainability of microalgae production for aquaculture purposes was analyzed using exergy analysis (EA) and life cycle assessment (LCA). A production process (pilot 2012, 240 m(2)) was assessed and compared with two upscaling scenarios (pilot 2013, 1320 m(2) and first production scale 2015, 2.5 ha). The EA at process level revealed that drying and cultivation had the lowest efficiencies. The LCA showed an improvement in resource efficiency after upscaling: 55.5 MJ(ex,CEENE)/MJ(ex) DW biomass was extracted from nature in 2012, which was reduced to 21.6 and 2.46 MJ(ex,CEENE)/MJ(ex) DW in the hypothetical 2013 and 2015 scenarios, respectively. Upscaling caused the carbon footprint to decline by factor 20 (0.09 kg CO2,eq/MJ(ex) DW in 2015). In the upscaling scenarios, microalgae production for aquaculture purposes appeared to be more sustainable in resource use than a reference fish feed (7.70 MJ(ex,CEENE) and 0.05 kg CO2,eq per MJ(ex) DW). Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Material efficiency in a multi-material world.

PubMed

Lifset, Reid; Eckelman, Matthew

2013-03-13

Material efficiency--using less of a material to make a product or supply a service--is gaining attention as a means for accomplishing important environmental goals. The ultimate goal of material efficiency is not to use less physical material but to reduce the impacts associated with its use. This article examines the concept and definition of material efficiency and argues that for it to be an effective strategy it must confront the challenges of operating in a multi-material world, providing guidance when materials are used together and when they compete. A series of conceptions of material efficiency are described, starting with mass-based formulations and expanding to consider multiple resources in the supply chain of a single material, and then to multiple resources in the supply chains of multiple materials used together, and further to multiple environmental impacts. The conception of material efficiency is further broadened by considering material choice, exploring the technical and economic effects both of using less material and of materials competition. Finally, this entire materials-based techno-economic system is considered with respect to the impact of complex policies and political forces. The overall goal here is to show how the concept of material efficiency when faced with more expansive--and yet directly relevant--definitional boundaries is forced to confront analytical challenges that are both familiar and difficult in life cycle assessment and product-based approaches.

Identifying and assessing ecotourism visitor impacts at selected protected areas in Costa Rica and Belize

USGS Publications Warehouse

Farrell, T.A.; Marion, J.L.

2001-01-01

Protected area visitation is an important component of ecotourism, and as such, must be sustainable. However, protected area visitation may degrade natural resources, particularly in areas of concentrated visitor activities like trails and recreation sites. This is an important concern in ecotourism destinations such as Belize and Costa Rica, because they actively promote ecotourism and emphasize the pristine qualities of their natural resources. Research on visitor impacts to protected areas has many potential applications in protected area management, though it has not been widely applied in Central and South America. This study targeted this deficiency through manager interviews and evaluations of alternative impact assessment procedures at eight protected areas in Belize and Costa Rica. Impact assessment procedures included qualitative condition class systems, ratings systems, and measurement-based systems applied to trails and recreation sites. The resulting data characterize manager perceptions of impact problems, document trail and recreation site impacts, and provide examples of inexpensive, efficient and effective rapid impact assessment procedures. Interview subjects reported a variety of impacts affecting trails, recreation sites, wildlife, water, attraction features and other resources. Standardized assessment procedures were developed and applied to record trail and recreation site impacts. Impacts affecting the study areas included trail proliferation, erosion and widening, muddiness on trails, vegetation cover loss, soil and root exposure, and tree damage on recreation sites. The findings also illustrate the types of assessment data yielded by several alternative methods and demonstrate their utility to protected area managers. The need for additional rapid assessment procedures for wildlife, water, attraction feature and other resource impacts was also identified.

Lowering the barriers to consumer-directed health care: responding to concerns.

PubMed

Baicker, Katherine; Dow, William H; Wolfson, Jonathan

2007-01-01

Consumer-directed health care is a potentially promising tool for moving toward more efficient use of health care resources. Tax policy has long been biased against health plans with significant patient cost sharing. Tax advantages created by health savings accounts (HSAs) began to change that, and proposed tax reforms could go even further. We assess various critiques of these plans, focusing on why they benefit not just the healthy and wealthy. Lower costs and more efficient health spending would help all patients and reduce uninsurance. Potential negative distributional effects are important but can be remedied more efficiently without distorting insurance design.

Business Process-Based Resource Importance Determination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fenz, Stefan; Ekelhart, Andreas; Neubauer, Thomas

Information security risk management (ISRM) heavily depends on realistic impact values representing the resources’ importance in the overall organizational context. Although a variety of ISRM approaches have been proposed, well-founded methods that provide an answer to the following question are still missing: How can business processes be used to determine resources’ importance in the overall organizational context? We answer this question by measuring the actual importance level of resources based on business processes. Therefore, this paper presents our novel business process-based resource importance determination method which provides ISRM with an efficient and powerful tool for deriving realistic resource importance figures solely from existing business processes. The conducted evaluation has shown that the calculation results of the developed method comply to the results gained in traditional workshop-based assessments.

Evaluation of health resource utilization efficiency in community health centers of Jiangsu Province, China.

PubMed

Xu, Xinglong; Zhou, Lulin; Antwi, Henry Asante; Chen, Xi

2018-02-20

While the demand for health services keep escalating at the grass roots or rural areas of China, a substantial portion of healthcare resources remain stagnant in the more developed cities and this has entrenched health inequity in many parts of China. At its conception, China's Deepen Medical Reform started in 2012 was intended to flush out possible disparities and promote a more equitable and efficient distribution of healthcare resources. Nearly half a decade of this reform, there are uncertainties as to whether the attainment of the objectives of the reform is in sight. Using a hybrid of panel data analysis and an augmented data envelopment analysis (DEA), we model human resources, material, finance to determine their technical and scale efficiency to comprehensively evaluate the transverse and longitudinal allocation efficiency of community health resources in Jiangsu Province. We observed that the Deepen Medical Reform in China has led to an increase concern to ensure efficient allocation of community health resources by health policy makers in the province. This has led to greater efficiency in health resource allocation in Jiangsu in general but serious regional or municipal disparities still exist. Using the DEA model, we note that the output from the Community Health Centers does not commensurate with the substantial resources (human resources, materials, and financial) invested in them. We further observe that the case is worst in less-developed Northern parts of Jiangsu Province. The government of Jiangsu Province could improve the efficiency of health resource allocation by improving the community health service system, rationalizing the allocation of health personnel, optimizing the allocation of material resources, and enhancing the level of health of financial resource allocation.

Research on Evaluation of resource allocation efficiency of transportation system based on DEA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zhehui; Du, Linan

2017-06-01

In this paper, we select the time series data onto 1985-2015 years, construct the land (shoreline) resources, capital and labor as inputs. The index system of the output is freight volume and passenger volume, we use Quantitative analysis based on DEA method evaluated the resource allocation efficiency of railway, highway, water transport and civil aviation in China. Research shows that the resource allocation efficiency of various modes of transport has obvious difference, and the impact on scale efficiency is more significant. The most important two ways to optimize the allocation of resources to improve the efficiency of the combination of various modes of transport is promoting the co-ordination of various modes of transport and constructing integrated transportation system.

Assessing the technical efficiency of health posts in rural Guatemala: a data envelopment analysis.

PubMed

Hernández, Alison R; San Sebastián, Miguel

2014-01-01

Strengthening health service delivery to the rural poor is an important means of redressing inequities. Meso-level managers can help enhance efficiency in the utilization of existing resources through the application of practical tools to analyze routinely collected data reflecting inputs and outputs. This study aimed to assess the efficiency and change in productivity of health posts over two years in a rural department of Guatemala. Data envelopment analysis was used to measure health posts' technical efficiency and productivity change for 2008 and 2009. Input/output data were collected from the regional health office of Alta Verapaz for 34 health posts from the 19 districts comprising the health region. Technical efficiency varied widely across health posts, with mean scores of 0.78 (SD=0.24) and 0.75 (SD=0.21) in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Overall, productivity increased by 4%, though 47% of health posts experienced a decline in productivity. Results were combined on a bivariate plot to identify health posts at the high and low extremes of efficiency, which should be followed up to determine how and why their production processes are operating differently. Assessing efficiency using the data that are available at the meso-level can serve as a first step in strengthening performance. Further work is required to support managers in the routine application of efficiency analysis and putting the results to use in guiding efforts to improve service delivery and increase utilization.

Assessing the technical efficiency of health posts in rural Guatemala: a data envelopment analysis

PubMed Central

Hernández, Alison R.; Sebastián, Miguel San

2014-01-01

Introduction Strengthening health service delivery to the rural poor is an important means of redressing inequities. Meso-level managers can help enhance efficiency in the utilization of existing resources through the application of practical tools to analyze routinely collected data reflecting inputs and outputs. This study aimed to assess the efficiency and change in productivity of health posts over two years in a rural department of Guatemala. Methods Data envelopment analysis was used to measure health posts’ technical efficiency and productivity change for 2008 and 2009. Input/output data were collected from the regional health office of Alta Verapaz for 34 health posts from the 19 districts comprising the health region. Results Technical efficiency varied widely across health posts, with mean scores of 0.78 (SD=0.24) and 0.75 (SD=0.21) in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Overall, productivity increased by 4%, though 47% of health posts experienced a decline in productivity. Results were combined on a bivariate plot to identify health posts at the high and low extremes of efficiency, which should be followed up to determine how and why their production processes are operating differently. Conclusions Assessing efficiency using the data that are available at the meso-level can serve as a first step in strengthening performance. Further work is required to support managers in the routine application of efficiency analysis and putting the results to use in guiding efforts to improve service delivery and increase utilization. PMID:24461356

Cytopathology whole slide images and adaptive tutorials for senior medical students: a randomized crossover trial.

PubMed

Van Es, Simone L; Kumar, Rakesh K; Pryor, Wendy M; Salisbury, Elizabeth L; Velan, Gary M

2016-01-08

Diagnostic cytopathology is an essential part of clinical decision-making. However, due to a combination of factors including curriculum reform and shortage of pathologists to teach introductory cytopathology, this area of pathology receives little or no formal attention in most medical school curricula. We have previously described the successful use of efficient and effective digital learning resources, including whole slide images (WSI) and virtual microscopy adaptive tutorials (VMATs), to teach cytopathology to pathology specialist trainees - a group that had prior exposure to cytopathology in their day to day practice. Consequently, in the current study we attempted to demonstrate the efficiency and efficacy of this eLearning resource in a cohort of senior medical students that was completely naïve to the subject matter (cytopathology). We evaluated both the quantitative and qualitative impact of these digital educational materials for learning cytopathology compared with existing resources (e-textbooks and online atlases). The senior medical students were recruited from The University of New South Wales Australia for a randomized cross-over trial. Online assessments, administered after each arm of the trial, contained questions which related directly to a whole slide image. Two categories of questions in the assessments (focusing on either diagnosis or identification of cellular features) were utilized to determine efficacy. User experience and perceptions of efficiency were evaluated using online questionnaires containing Likert scale items and open-ended questions. For this cohort of senior medical students, virtual microscopy adaptive tutorials (VMATs) proved to be at least as effective as existing digital resources for learning cytopathology. Importantly, virtual microscopy adaptive tutorials had superior efficacy in facilitating accurate diagnosis on whole slide images. Student perceptions of VMATs were positive, particularly regarding the immediate feedback, interactivity and equity of learning which this learning resource provides. Virtual microscopy adaptive tutorials have the potential to improve the efficacy of learning microscopic pathology for medical students. The enhanced learning experience provided by these eLearning tools merits further investigation of their utility for other cohorts, including specialist trainees.

Obtaining and providing health information in the community pharmacy setting.

PubMed

Iwanowicz, Susan L; Marciniak, Macary Weck; Zeolla, Mario M

2006-06-15

Community pharmacists are a valuable information resource for patients and other healthcare providers. The advent of new information technology, most notably the Internet, coupled with the rapid availability of new healthcare information, has fueled this demand. Pharmacy students must receive training that enables them to meet this need. Community advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) provide an excellent opportunity for students to develop and master drug information skills in a real-world setting. Preceptors must ensure that students are familiar with drug information resources and can efficiently identify the most useful resource for a given topic. Students must also be trained to assess the quality of resources and use this information to effectively respond to drug or health information inquiries. This article will discuss key aspects of providing drug information in the community pharmacy setting and can serve as a guide and resource for APPE preceptors.

Obtaining and Providing Health Information in the Community Pharmacy Setting

PubMed Central

Iwanowicz, Susan L.; Marciniak, Macary Weck; Zeolla, Mario M.

2006-01-01

Community pharmacists are a valuable information resource for patients and other healthcare providers. The advent of new information technology, most notably the Internet, coupled with the rapid availability of new healthcare information, has fueled this demand. Pharmacy students must receive training that enables them to meet this need. Community advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) provide an excellent opportunity for students to develop and master drug information skills in a real-world setting. Preceptors must ensure that students are familiar with drug information resources and can efficiently identify the most useful resource for a given topic. Students must also be trained to assess the quality of resources and use this information to effectively respond to drug or health information inquiries. This article will discuss key aspects of providing drug information in the community pharmacy setting and can serve as a guide and resource for APPE preceptors. PMID:17136178

Resource efficiency and culture--workplace training for small and medium-sized enterprises.

PubMed

Bliesner, Anna; Liedtke, Christa; Rohn, Holger

2014-05-15

Although there are already some qualification offers available for enterprises to support resource efficiency innovations, the high potentials that can be identified especially for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have not been activated until now. As successful change lies in the hands of humans, the main aim of vocational education has to be the promotion of organisational and cultural changes in the enterprises. As there is already a small but increasing number of enterprises that perform very well in resource efficiency innovations one question arises: What are typical characteristics of those enterprises? Leaning on a good-practice approach, the project "ResourceCulture" is going to prove or falsify the hypothesis that enterprises being successful with resource efficiency innovations have a specific culture of trust, which substantially contributes to innovation processes, or even initially enables them. Detailed empirical field research will light up which correlations between resource efficiency, innovation and cultures of trust can be found and will offer important aspects for the improvement of management instruments and qualification concepts for workplace training. The project seizes qualification needs that were likewise mentioned by enterprises and consultants, regarding the implementation of resource efficiency. This article - based on first empirical field research results - derives preliminary indications for the design of the qualification module for the target groups resource efficiency consultants and managers. On this basis and in order to implement "ResourceCulture" conceptual and methodological starting points for workplace training are outlined. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of the Brief Romantic Relationship Interaction Coding Scheme (BRRICS)

PubMed Central

Humbad, Mikhila N.; Donnellan, M. Brent; Klump, Kelly L.; Burt, S. Alexandra

2012-01-01

Although observational studies of romantic relationships are common, many existing coding schemes require considerable amounts of time and resources to implement. The current study presents a new coding scheme, the Brief Romantic Relationship Interaction Coding Scheme (BRRICS), designed to assess various aspects of romantic relationship both quickly and efficiently. The BRRICS consists of four individual coding dimensions assessing positive and negative affect in each member of the dyad, as well as four codes assessing specific components of the dyadic interaction (i.e., positive reciprocity, demand-withdraw pattern, negative reciprocity, and overall satisfaction). Concurrent associations with measures of marital adjustment and conflict were evaluated in a sample of 118 married couples participating in the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Couples were asked to discuss common conflicts in their marriage while being videotaped. Undergraduate coders used the BRRICS to rate these interactions. The BRRICS scales were correlated in expected directions with self-reports of marital adjustment, as well as children’s perception of the severity and frequency of marital conflict. Based on these results, the BRRICS may be an efficient tool for researchers with large samples of observational data who are interested in coding global aspects of the relationship but do not have the resources to use labor intensive schemes. PMID:21875192

Energy sustainability: consumption, efficiency, and ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

One of the critical challenges in achieving sustainability is finding a way to meet the energy consumption needs of a growing population in the face of increasing economic prosperity and finite resources. According to ecological footprint computations, the global resource consumption began exceeding planetary supply in 1977 and by 2030, global energy demand, population, and gross domestic product are projected to greatly increase over 1977 levels. With the aim of finding sustainable energy solutions, we present a simple yet rigorous procedure for assessing and counterbalancing the relationship between energy demand, environmental impact, population, GDP, and energy efficiency. Our analyses indicated that infeasible increases in energy efficiency (over 100 %) would be required by 2030 to return to 1977 environmental impact levels and annual reductions (2 and 3 %) in energy demand resulted in physical, yet impractical requirements; hence, a combination of policy and technology approaches is needed to tackle this critical challenge. This work emphasizes the difficulty in moving toward energy sustainability and helps to frame possible solutions useful for policy and management. Based on projected energy consumption, environmental impact, human population, gross domestic product (GDP), and energy efficiency, for this study, we explore the increase in energy-use efficiency and the decrease in energy use intensity required to achieve sustainable environmental impact le

Net Resource Assessment (NetRA): A Collaborative Effort Between USGS Science and Decisions Center, the Science Impact Laboratory for Policy and Economics (University of New Mexico) and Sandia National Laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brookshire, D.; Bernknopf, R.; Adhikari, D. R.; Babis, C.; Broadbent, C. D.; Tidwell, V. C.

2015-12-01

Department of Interior Secretarial Order No. 3330, "… establishes a Department-wide mitigation strategy that will ensure consistency and efficiency in the review and permitting of infrastructure development projects and in conserving our Nation's valuable natural and cultural resources." The USGS Organic Act authorizes resource assessments to estimate the in-place potential capacity of energy, mineral, hydrologic, and biologic resources (20 Stat. 394; 43 U.S.C. 31) and later amendments. These two statements form the basis for the development of the Net Resources Assessment (NetRA) framework. NetRA is a policy-relevant, interdisciplinary approach to assessing natural resources availability in examining the regional-scale interrelationships between energy or mineral extraction and impact on ecosystem services. The systems dynamics approach (SD) emphasizes the interdependence of natural resource development and its effect on collocated ecosystem services over space and time. The example of the NetRA that will be presented focuses on tradeoffs associated with land management decisions in the West. The Piceance Basin, CO example that will be discussed involves development of a continuous gas deposit and its impact on Mule Deer and water quality. The SD is the hub for generating a range of simulated landscape outcomes. The probabilistic model provides an economic indicator as to the expected net societal benefit of economic development and biophysical indicators for ecosystem services affected in the region. Both natural and economic indicators are associated with each outcome via a tradeoff analysis the can be used for risk analysis. The NetRA also retains map attributes for before and after map comparisons to specific alternatives for an existing baseline. The model has three stages: map-based scenario development with slider bars (choice variables), side-by-side extraction and ecosystem services sub-models, and integrated multiple resource trade-off outcomes.

Advancing Resource Efficiency in the Supply Chain - Observations and Opportunities for Action

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This document provides U.S. EPA’s perspectives on the discussions at the G7 Alliance on Resource Efficiency U.S.-hosted Workshop on the Use of Life Cycle Concepts in Supply Chain Management to Achieve Resource Efficiency that was held March 22-23, 2016.

LCA-based optimization of wood utilization under special consideration of a cascading use of wood.

PubMed

Höglmeier, Karin; Steubing, Bernhard; Weber-Blaschke, Gabriele; Richter, Klaus

2015-04-01

Cascading, the use of the same unit of a resource in multiple successional applications, is considered as a viable means to improve the efficiency of resource utilization and to decrease environmental impacts. Wood, as a regrowing but nevertheless limited and increasingly in demand resource, can be used in cascades, thereby increasing the potential efficiency per unit of wood. This study aims to assess the influence of cascading wood utilization on optimizing the overall environmental impact of wood utilization. By combining a material flow model of existing wood applications - both for materials provision and energy production - with an algebraic optimization tool, the effects of the use of wood in cascades can be modelled and quantified based on life cycle impact assessment results for all production processes. To identify the most efficient wood allocation, the effects of a potential substitution of non-wood products were taken into account in a part of the model runs. The considered environmental indicators were global warming potential, particulate matter formation, land occupation and an aggregated single score indicator. We found that optimizing either the overall global warming potential or the value of the single score indicator of the system leads to a simultaneous relative decrease of all other considered environmental impacts. The relative differences between the impacts of the model run with and without the possibility of a cascading use of wood were 7% for global warming potential and the single score indicator, despite cascading only influencing a small part of the overall system, namely wood panel production. Cascading led to savings of up to 14% of the annual primary wood supply of the study area. We conclude that cascading can improve the overall performance of a wood utilization system. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

From reactive to proactive: developing a valid clinical ethics needs assessment survey to support ethics program strategic planning (part 1 of 2).

PubMed

Frolic, Andrea; Jennings, Barb; Seidlitz, Wendy; Andreychuk, Sandy; Djuric-Paulin, Angela; Flaherty, Barb; Peace, Donna

2013-03-01

As ethics committees and programs become integrated into the "usual business" of healthcare organizations, they are likely to face the predicament of responding to greater demands for service and higher expectations, without an influx of additional resources. This situation demands that ethics committees and programs allocate their scarce resources (including their time, skills and funds) strategically, rather than lurching from one ad hoc request to another; finding ways to maximize the effectiveness, efficiency, impact and quality of ethics services is essential in today's competitive environment. How can Hospital Ethics Committees (HECs) begin the process of strategic priority-setting to ensure they are delivering services where and how they are most needed? This paper describes the creation of the Clinical Ethics Needs Assessment Survey (CENAS) as a tool to understand interprofessional staff perceptions of the organization's ethical climate, challenging ethical issues and educational priorities. The CENAS was designed to support informed resource allocation and advocacy by HECs. By sharing our process of developing and validating this ethics needs assessment survey we hope to enable strategic priority-setting in other resource-strapped ethics programs, and to empower HECs to shift their focus to more proactive, quality-focused initiatives.

Environmental sustainability assessments of pharmaceuticals: an emerging need for simplification in life cycle assessments.

PubMed

De Soete, Wouter; Debaveye, Sam; De Meester, Steven; Van der Vorst, Geert; Aelterman, Wim; Heirman, Bert; Cappuyns, Philippe; Dewulf, Jo

2014-10-21

The pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries are eager to strive toward innovative products and technologies. This study first derives hotspots in resource consumption of 2839 Basic Operations in 40 Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient synthesis steps through Exergetic Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA). Second, since companies are increasingly obliged to quantify the environmental sustainability of their products, two alternative ways of simplifying (E)LCA are discussed. The usage of averaged product group values (R(2) = 3.40 × 10(-30)) is compared with multiple linear regression models (R(2) = 8.66 × 10(-01)) in order to estimate resource consumption of synthesis steps. An optimal set of predictor variables is postulated to balance model complexity and embedded information with usability and capability of merging models with existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data systems. The amount of organic solvents used, molar efficiency, and duration of a synthesis step were shown to be the most significant predictor variables. Including additional predictor variables did not contribute to the predictive power and eventually weakens the model interpretation. Ideally, an organization should be able to derive its environmental impact from readily available ERP data, linking supply chains back to the cradle of resource extraction, excluding the need for an approximation with product group averages.

Resource-use efficiencies of three indigenous tree species planted in resource islands created by shrubs: implications for reforestation of subtropical degraded shrublands

Treesearch

Nan Liu; Qinfeng Guo

2012-01-01

Shrub resource islands are characterized by resources accumulated shrubby areas surrounded by relative barren soils. This research aims to determine resource-use efficiency of native trees species planted on shrub resource islands, and to determine how the planted trees may influence the resource islands in degraded shrublands in South China. Shrub (Rhodomyrtus...

Internal audit consider the implications.

PubMed

Baumgartner, Grant D; Hamilton, Angela

2004-06-01

Internal audit can not only allay external and internal concerns about appropriateness of business operations, but also help improve efficiency and the bottom line. To get an internal audit function under way, healthcare organizations need to obtain board buy-in, form an audit committee of the board, determine resources needed, perform a risk assessment, and develop an internal audit plan.

Comparison of numerical weather prediction based deterministic and probabilistic wind resource assessment methods

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Jie; Draxl, Caroline; Hopson, Thomas

Numerical weather prediction (NWP) models have been widely used for wind resource assessment. Model runs with higher spatial resolution are generally more accurate, yet extremely computational expensive. An alternative approach is to use data generated by a low resolution NWP model, in conjunction with statistical methods. In order to analyze the accuracy and computational efficiency of different types of NWP-based wind resource assessment methods, this paper performs a comparison of three deterministic and probabilistic NWP-based wind resource assessment methodologies: (i) a coarse resolution (0.5 degrees x 0.67 degrees) global reanalysis data set, the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applicationsmore » (MERRA); (ii) an analog ensemble methodology based on the MERRA, which provides both deterministic and probabilistic predictions; and (iii) a fine resolution (2-km) NWP data set, the Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit, based on the Weather Research and Forecasting model. Results show that: (i) as expected, the analog ensemble and WIND Toolkit perform significantly better than MERRA confirming their ability to downscale coarse estimates; (ii) the analog ensemble provides the best estimate of the multi-year wind distribution at seven of the nine sites, while the WIND Toolkit is the best at one site; (iii) the WIND Toolkit is more accurate in estimating the distribution of hourly wind speed differences, which characterizes the wind variability, at five of the available sites, with the analog ensemble being best at the remaining four locations; and (iv) the analog ensemble computational cost is negligible, whereas the WIND Toolkit requires large computational resources. Future efforts could focus on the combination of the analog ensemble with intermediate resolution (e.g., 10-15 km) NWP estimates, to considerably reduce the computational burden, while providing accurate deterministic estimates and reliable probabilistic assessments.« less

A test-bed modeling study for wave resource assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Z.; Neary, V. S.; Wang, T.; Gunawan, B.; Dallman, A.

2016-02-01

Hindcasts from phase-averaged wave models are commonly used to estimate standard statistics used in wave energy resource assessments. However, the research community and wave energy converter industry is lacking a well-documented and consistent modeling approach for conducting these resource assessments at different phases of WEC project development, and at different spatial scales, e.g., from small-scale pilot study to large-scale commercial deployment. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate current wave model codes, as well as limitations and knowledge gaps for predicting sea states, in order to establish best wave modeling practices, and to identify future research needs to improve wave prediction for resource assessment. This paper presents the first phase of an on-going modeling study to address these concerns. The modeling study is being conducted at a test-bed site off the Central Oregon Coast using two of the most widely-used third-generation wave models - WaveWatchIII and SWAN. A nested-grid modeling approach, with domain dimension ranging from global to regional scales, was used to provide wave spectral boundary condition to a local scale model domain, which has a spatial dimension around 60km by 60km and a grid resolution of 250m - 300m. Model results simulated by WaveWatchIII and SWAN in a structured-grid framework are compared to NOAA wave buoy data for the six wave parameters, including omnidirectional wave power, significant wave height, energy period, spectral width, direction of maximum directionally resolved wave power, and directionality coefficient. Model performance and computational efficiency are evaluated, and the best practices for wave resource assessments are discussed, based on a set of standard error statistics and model run times.

How Do Learning Outcomes, Assessments and Student Engagement in a Fully Online Geoscience Laboratory Compare to Those Of The Original Hands-on Exercise?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, F. M.

2015-12-01

In a third year geoscience elective for BSc majors, we adapted several active f2f learning strategies for an equivalent fully online version of the course. In particular, we converted a hands-on laboratory including analysis and interpretation of hand-specimens, sketching results and peer-to-peer discussion of scientific implications. This study compares learning outcomes in both formats and describes resources that make engaging, effective and efficient learning experiences for large classes in an asynchronous online environment. Our two hypotheses are: 1) a hands-on geology lab exercise can be converted for efficient fully online use without sacrificing feedback and assessment opportunities; 2) students find either the f2f or DE versions equally effective and enjoyable as learning experiences. Key components are an authentic context, interactive resources including sketching, strategies that enable efficient assessment and feedback on solo and group work, and asynchronous yet productive interaction with peers. Students in the f2f class handle real rock and fossil specimens, work with peers in the lab and classroom, and deliver most results including annotated figures on paper. DE students complete identical tasks using interactive high resolution figures and videos of specimens. Solo work is first delivered for automated assessment and feedback, then students engage asynchronously in small groups to improve results and discuss implications. Chronostratigraphy and other interpretations are sketched on prepared template images using a simple open-source sketching app that ensures equal access and consistent results that are efficient to assess by peers and instructors. Learning outcomes based on subsequent quizzes, sketches, and lab results (paper for f2f students and automated data entry for DE students), show that f2f and online students demonstrate knowledge and scientific interpretations of comparable quality. Effective engagement and group work are demonstrated for f2f students using video and survey data, and for DE students using learning management system tracking data and similar survey data. Finally, these initiatives are shown to be scalable to classes of many students by comparing the time required for instructors to run and grade the lab in both settings.

Wind energy prospecting: socio-economic value of a new wind resource assessment technique based on a NASA Earth science dataset

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanvyve, E.; Magontier, P.; Vandenberghe, F. C.; Delle Monache, L.; Dickinson, K.

2012-12-01

Wind energy is amongst the fastest growing sources of renewable energy in the U.S. and could supply up to 20 % of the U.S power production by 2030. An accurate and reliable wind resource assessment for prospective wind farm sites is a challenging task, yet is crucial for evaluating the long-term profitability and feasibility of a potential development. We have developed an accurate and computationally efficient wind resource assessment technique for prospective wind farm sites, which incorporates innovative statistical techniques and the new NASA Earth science dataset MERRA. This technique produces a wind resource estimate that is more accurate than that obtained by the wind energy industry's standard technique, while providing a reliable quantification of its uncertainty. The focus now is on evaluating the socio-economic value of this new technique upon using the industry's standard technique. Would it yield lower financing costs? Could it result in lower electricity prices? Are there further down-the-line positive consequences, e.g. job creation, time saved, greenhouse gas decrease? Ultimately, we expect our results will inform efforts to refine and disseminate the new technique to support the development of the U.S. renewable energy infrastructure. In order to address the above questions, we are carrying out a cost-benefit analysis based on the net present worth of the technique. We will describe this approach, including the cash-flow process of wind farm financing, how the wind resource assessment factors in, and will present current results for various hypothetical candidate wind farm sites.

Modeling Hydrological Processes in New Mexico-Texas-Mexico Border Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samimi, M.; Jahan, N. T.; Mirchi, A.

2017-12-01

Efficient allocation of limited water resources to competing use sectors is becoming increasingly critical for water-scarce regions. Understanding natural and anthropogenic processes affecting hydrological processes is key for efficient water management. We used Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to model governing hydrologic processes in New Mexico-Texas-Mexico border region. Our study area includes the Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID), which manages water resources to support irrigated agriculture. The region is facing water resources challenges associated with chronic water scarcity, over-allocation, diminishing water supply, and growing water demand. Agricultural activities rely on conjunctive use of Rio Grande River water supply and groundwater withdrawal. The model is calibrated and validated under baseline conditions in the arid and semi-arid climate in order to evaluate potential impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector and regional water availability. We highlight the importance of calibrating the crop growth parameters, evapotranspiration, and groundwater recharge to provide a realistic representation of the hydrological processes and water availability in the region. Furthermore, limitations of the model and its utility to inform stakeholders will be discussed.

Efficient management of marine resources in conflict: an empirical study of marine sand mining, Korea.

PubMed

Kim, Tae-Goun

2009-10-01

This article develops a dynamic model of efficient use of exhaustible marine sand resources in the context of marine mining externalities. The classical Hotelling extraction model is applied to sand mining in Ongjin, Korea and extended to include the estimated marginal external costs that mining imposes on marine fisheries. The socially efficient sand extraction plan is compared with the extraction paths suggested by scientific research. If marginal environmental costs are correctly estimated, the developed efficient extraction plan considering the resource rent may increase the social welfare and reduce the conflicts among the marine sand resource users. The empirical results are interpreted with an emphasis on guidelines for coastal resource management policy.

The Cost of Saving Electricity Through Energy Efficiency Programs Funded by Utility Customers: 2009–2015

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hoffman, Ian M.; Goldman, Charles A.; Murphy, Sean

The average cost to utilities to save a kilowatt-hour (kWh) in the United States is 2.5 cents, according to the most comprehensive assessment to date of the cost performance of energy efficiency programs funded by electricity customers. These costs are similar to those documented earlier. Cost-effective efficiency programs help ensure electricity system reliability at the most affordable cost as part of utility planning and implementation activities for resource adequacy. Building on prior studies, Berkeley Lab analyzed the cost performance of 8,790 electricity efficiency programs between 2009 and 2015 for 116 investor-owned utilities and other program administrators in 41 states. Themore » Berkeley Lab database includes programs representing about three-quarters of total spending on electricity efficiency programs in the United States.« less

Semi-automted analysis of high-resolution aerial images to quantify docks in Upper Midwest glacial lakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Beck, Marcus W.; Vondracek, Bruce C.; Hatch, Lorin K.; Vinje, Jason

2013-01-01

Lake resources can be negatively affected by environmental stressors originating from multiple sources and different spatial scales. Shoreline development, in particular, can negatively affect lake resources through decline in habitat quality, physical disturbance, and impacts on fisheries. The development of remote sensing techniques that efficiently characterize shoreline development in a regional context could greatly improve management approaches for protecting and restoring lake resources. The goal of this study was to develop an approach using high-resolution aerial photographs to quantify and assess docks as indicators of shoreline development. First, we describe a dock analysis workflow that can be used to quantify the spatial extent of docks using aerial images. Our approach incorporates pixel-based classifiers with object-based techniques to effectively analyze high-resolution digital imagery. Second, we apply the analysis workflow to quantify docks for 4261 lakes managed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Overall accuracy of the analysis results was 98.4% (87.7% based on ) after manual post-processing. The analysis workflow was also 74% more efficient than the time required for manual digitization of docks. These analyses have immediate relevance for resource planning in Minnesota, whereas the dock analysis workflow could be used to quantify shoreline development in other regions with comparable imagery. These data can also be used to better understand the effects of shoreline development on aquatic resources and to evaluate the effects of shoreline development relative to other stressors.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Martel, Laura; Smith, Paul; Rizea, Steven

The Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) Life Cycle Cost Assessment (OLCCA) is a study performed by members of the Lockheed Martin (LM) OTEC Team under funding from the Department of Energy (DOE), Award No. DE-EE0002663, dated 01/01/2010. OLCCA objectives are to estimate procurement, operations and maintenance, and overhaul costs for two types of OTEC plants: -Plants moored to the sea floor where the electricity produced by the OTEC plant is directly connected to the grid ashore via a marine power cable (Grid Connected OTEC plants) -Open-ocean grazing OTEC plant-ships producing an energy carrier that is transported to designated ports (Energymore » Carrier OTEC plants) Costs are developed using the concept of levelized cost of energy established by DOE for use in comparing electricity costs from various generating systems. One area of system costs that had not been developed in detail prior to this analysis was the operations and sustainment (O&S) cost for both types of OTEC plants. Procurement costs, generally referred to as capital expense and O&S costs (operations and maintenance (O&M) costs plus overhaul and replacement costs), are assessed over the 30 year operational life of the plants and an annual annuity calculated to achieve a levelized cost (constant across entire plant life). Dividing this levelized cost by the average annual energy production results in a levelized cost of electricity, or LCOE, for the OTEC plants. Technical and production efficiency enhancements that could result in a lower value of the OTEC LCOE were also explored. The thermal OTEC resource for Oahu, Hawaii and projected build out plan were developed. The estimate of the OTEC resource and LCOE values for the planned OTEC systems enable this information to be displayed as energy supplied versus levelized cost of the supplied energy; this curve is referred to as an Energy Supply Curve. The Oahu Energy Supply Curve represents initial OTEC deployment starting in 2018 and demonstrates the predicted economies of scale as technology and efficiency improvements are realized and larger more economical plants deployed. Utilizing global high resolution OTEC resource assessment from the Ocean Thermal Extractable Energy Visualization (OTEEV) project (an independent DOE project), Global Energy Supply Curves were generated for Grid Connected and Energy Carrier OTEC plants deployed in 2045 when the predicted technology and efficiencies improvements are fully realized. The Global Energy Supply Curves present the LCOE versus capacity in ascending order with the richest, lowest cost resource locations being harvested first. These curves demonstrate the vast ocean thermal resource and potential OTEC capacity that can be harvested with little change in LCOE.« less

Exergy-based efficiency and renewability assessment of biofuel production.

PubMed

Dewulf, J; Van Langenhove, H; Van De Velde, B

2005-05-15

This study presents an efficiency and renewability analysis of the production of three biofuels: rapeseed methyl ester (RME), soybean methyl ester (SME) and corn-based ethanol (EtOH). The overall production chains have been taken into account: not only the agricultural crop production and the industrial conversion into biofuel, but also production of the supply of agricultural resources (pesticides, fertilizers, fuel, seeding material) and industrial resources (energy and chemicals) to transform the crops into biofuel. Simultaneously, byproducts of the agricultural and industrial processes have been taken into account when resources have to be allocated to the biofuels. The technical analysis via the second law of thermodynamics revealed that corn-based EtOH results in the highest production rate with an exergetic fuel content of 68.8 GJ ha(-1) yr(-1), whereas the RME and SME results were limited to 47.5 and 16.4 GJ ha(-1) yr(-1). The allocated nonrenewable resource input to deliver these biofuels is significant: 16.5, 15.4, and 5.6 MJ ha(-1) yr(-1). This means that these biofuels, generally considered as renewable resources, embed a nonrenewable fraction of one-quarter for EtOH and even one-third for RME and SME. This type of analysis provides scientifically sound quantitative information that is necessarywith respect to the sustainability analysis of so-called renewable energy.

Implementing antiretroviral therapy programs in resource-constrained settings: lessons from Monze, Zambia.

PubMed

Adedimeji, Adebola; Malokota, Oliver; Manafa, Ogenna

2011-05-01

We describe the impact of an antiretroviral therapy program on human resource utilization and service delivery in a rural hospital in Monze, Zambia, using qualitative data. We assess project impact on staff capacity utilization, service delivery, and community perception of care. Increased workload resulted in fatigue, low staff morale, and exacerbated critical manpower shortages, but also an increase in users of antiretroviral therapy, improvement in hospital infrastructure and funding, and an overall community satisfaction with service delivery. Integrating HAART programs within existing hospital units and services may be a good alternative to increase overall efficiency.

Sustainable polymers from renewable resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Yunqing; Romain, Charles; Williams, Charlotte K.

2016-12-01

Renewable resources are used increasingly in the production of polymers. In particular, monomers such as carbon dioxide, terpenes, vegetable oils and carbohydrates can be used as feedstocks for the manufacture of a variety of sustainable materials and products, including elastomers, plastics, hydrogels, flexible electronics, resins, engineering polymers and composites. Efficient catalysis is required to produce monomers, to facilitate selective polymerizations and to enable recycling or upcycling of waste materials. There are opportunities to use such sustainable polymers in both high-value areas and in basic applications such as packaging. Life-cycle assessment can be used to quantify the environmental benefits of sustainable polymers.

Sustainable polymers from renewable resources.

PubMed

Zhu, Yunqing; Romain, Charles; Williams, Charlotte K

2016-12-14

Renewable resources are used increasingly in the production of polymers. In particular, monomers such as carbon dioxide, terpenes, vegetable oils and carbohydrates can be used as feedstocks for the manufacture of a variety of sustainable materials and products, including elastomers, plastics, hydrogels, flexible electronics, resins, engineering polymers and composites. Efficient catalysis is required to produce monomers, to facilitate selective polymerizations and to enable recycling or upcycling of waste materials. There are opportunities to use such sustainable polymers in both high-value areas and in basic applications such as packaging. Life-cycle assessment can be used to quantify the environmental benefits of sustainable polymers.

Medical education in India: current challenges and the way forward.

PubMed

Solanki, Anjali; Kashyap, Surender

2014-12-01

Medical education in India is suffering from various shortcomings at conceptual as well as implementation level. With the expansion in medical education, the doctor to patient ratio has increased but these numbers do not align well with the overall quality of medical care in the country. To address this issue, a comprehensive analysis of various associated factors is essential. Indian medical education is suffering from a maldistribution of resources, unregulated growth in the private sector, lack of uniform admission procedures and traditional curricula lacking innovative approaches. To achieve higher standards of medical education, our goal should be to re-evaluate each and every aspect; create an efficient accreditation system; promote an equal distribution of resources, redesign curricula with stricter implementation and improved assessment methodologies; all of which will generate efficient medical graduates and consequently better health care delivery, and resulting in desired change within the system.

Stakeholder analysis methodologies resource book

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Babiuch, W.M.; Farhar, B.C.

1994-03-01

Stakeholder analysis allows analysts to identify how parties might be affected by government projects. This process involves identifying the likely impacts of a proposed action and stakeholder groups affected by that action. Additionally, the process involves assessing how these groups might be affected and suggesting measures to mitigate any adverse effects. Evidence suggests that the efficiency and effectiveness of government actions can be increased and adverse social impacts mitigated when officials understand how a proposed action might affect stakeholders. This report discusses how to conduct useful stakeholder analyses for government officials making decisions on energy-efficiency and renewable-energy technologies and theirmore » commercialization. It discusses methodological issues that may affect the validity and reliability of findings, including sampling, generalizability, validity, ``uncooperative`` stakeholder groups, using social indicators, and the effect of government regulations. The Appendix contains resource directories and a list of specialists in stakeholder analysis and involvement.« less

Health professional learner attitudes and use of digital learning resources.

PubMed

Maloney, Stephen; Chamberlain, Michael; Morrison, Shane; Kotsanas, George; Keating, Jennifer L; Ilic, Dragan

2013-01-16

Web-based digital repositories allow educational resources to be accessed efficiently and conveniently from diverse geographic locations, hold a variety of resource formats, enable interactive learning, and facilitate targeted access for the user. Unlike some other learning management systems (LMS), resources can be retrieved through search engines and meta-tagged labels, and content can be streamed, which is particularly useful for multimedia resources. The aim of this study was to examine usage and user experiences of an online learning repository (Physeek) in a population of physiotherapy students. The secondary aim of this project was to examine how students prefer to access resources and which resources they find most helpful. The following data were examined using an audit of the repository server: (1) number of online resources accessed per day in 2010, (2) number of each type of resource accessed, (3) number of resources accessed during business hours (9 am to 5 pm) and outside business hours (years 1-4), (4) session length of each log-on (years 1-4), and (5) video quality (bit rate) of each video accessed. An online questionnaire and 3 focus groups assessed student feedback and self-reported experiences of Physeek. Students preferred the support provided by Physeek to other sources of educational material primarily because of its efficiency. Peak usage commonly occurred at times of increased academic need (ie, examination times). Students perceived online repositories as a potential tool to support lifelong learning and health care delivery. The results of this study indicate that today's health professional students welcome the benefits of online learning resources because of their convenience and usability. This represents a transition away from traditional learning styles and toward technological learning support and may indicate a growing link between social immersions in Internet-based connections and learning styles. The true potential for Web-based resources to support student learning is as yet unknown.

Health Professional Learner Attitudes and Use of Digital Learning Resources

PubMed Central

Chamberlain, Michael; Morrison, Shane; Kotsanas, George; Keating, Jennifer L; Ilic, Dragan

2013-01-01

Background Web-based digital repositories allow educational resources to be accessed efficiently and conveniently from diverse geographic locations, hold a variety of resource formats, enable interactive learning, and facilitate targeted access for the user. Unlike some other learning management systems (LMS), resources can be retrieved through search engines and meta-tagged labels, and content can be streamed, which is particularly useful for multimedia resources. Objective The aim of this study was to examine usage and user experiences of an online learning repository (Physeek) in a population of physiotherapy students. The secondary aim of this project was to examine how students prefer to access resources and which resources they find most helpful. Methods The following data were examined using an audit of the repository server: (1) number of online resources accessed per day in 2010, (2) number of each type of resource accessed, (3) number of resources accessed during business hours (9 am to 5 pm) and outside business hours (years 1-4), (4) session length of each log-on (years 1-4), and (5) video quality (bit rate) of each video accessed. An online questionnaire and 3 focus groups assessed student feedback and self-reported experiences of Physeek. Results Students preferred the support provided by Physeek to other sources of educational material primarily because of its efficiency. Peak usage commonly occurred at times of increased academic need (ie, examination times). Students perceived online repositories as a potential tool to support lifelong learning and health care delivery. Conclusions The results of this study indicate that today’s health professional students welcome the benefits of online learning resources because of their convenience and usability. This represents a transition away from traditional learning styles and toward technological learning support and may indicate a growing link between social immersions in Internet-based connections and learning styles. The true potential for Web-based resources to support student learning is as yet unknown. PMID:23324800

On the Resource Efficiency of Virtual Concatenation in SDH/SONET Mesh Transport Networks Bearing Protected Scheduled Connections

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuri, Josu�; Gagnaire, Maurice; Puech, Nicolas

2005-10-01

Virtual concatenation (VCAT) is a Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)/Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) network functionality recently standardized by the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T). VCAT provides the flexibility required to efficiently allocate network resources to Ethernet, Fiber Channel (FC), Enterprise System Connection (ESCON), and other important data traffic signals. In this article, we assess the resources' gain provided by VCAT with respect to contiguous concatenation (CCAT) in SDH/SONET mesh transport networks bearing protected scheduled connection demands (SCDs). As explained later, an SCD is a connection demand for which the set-up and tear-down dates are known in advance. We define mathematical models to quantify the add/drop and transmission resources required to instantiate a set of protected SCDs in VCAT-and CCAT-capable networks. Quantification of transmission resources requires a routing and slot assignment (RSA) problem to be solved. We formulate the RSA problem in VCAT-and CCAT-capable networks as two different combinatorial optimization problems: RSA in VCAT-capable networks (RSAv) and RSA in CCAT-capable networks (RSAc), respectively. Protection of the SCDs is considered in the formulations using a shared backup path protection (SBPP) technique. We propose a simulated annealing (SA)-based meta-heuristic algorithm to compute approximate solutions to these problems (i.e., solutions whose cost approximates the cost of the optimal ones). The gain in transmission resources and the cost structure of add/drop resources making VCAT-capable networks more economical are analyzed for different traffic scenarios.

Efficient resource recycling from liquid digestate by microalgae-yeast mixed culture and the assessment of key gene transcription related to nitrogen assimilation in microalgae.

PubMed

Qin, Lei; Liu, Lu; Wang, Zhongming; Chen, Weining; Wei, Dong

2018-05-18

To determine the feasibility of microalgae-yeast mixed culture using the liquid digestate of dairy wastewater (LDDW) for biofuels and single cell protein (SCP) production, the cell growth, nutrient removal and outputs evaluation of the mono and mixed culture of Chlorella vulgaris and Yarrowia lipolytica in LDDW were investigated by adding glycerol as carbon source. The results showed that the mixed culture could enhance the biological utilization efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus, and obtain higher yield of biomass (1.62 g/L), lipid (0.31 g/L), protein (0.51 g/L), and higher heating value (34.06 KJ/L). Compared with the mono culture of C. vulgaris, a decline of the transcription level in nitrate reductase and glutamine synthetase II genes in C. vulgaris was observed in the mixed culture when ammonia was sufficient. The results suggest the possibility of using the mixed culture for the efficient treatment of LDDW and resources recycling. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Technical Efficiency of Earthquake Medical Rapid Response Teams Following Disasters: The Case of the 2010 Yushu Earthquake in China.

PubMed

Liu, Xu; Tang, Bihan; Yang, Hongyang; Liu, Yuan; Xue, Chen; Zhang, Lulu

2015-12-04

Performance assessments of earthquake medical rapid response teams (EMRRTs), particularly the first responders deployed to the hardest hit areas following major earthquakes, should consider efficient and effective use of resources. This study assesses the daily technical efficiency of EMRRTs in the emergency period immediately following the 2010 Yushu earthquake in China. Data on EMRRTs were obtained from official daily reports of the general headquarters for Yushu earthquake relief, the emergency office of the National Ministry of Health, and the Health Department of Qinghai Province, for a sample of data on 15 EMRRTs over 62 days. Data envelopment analysis was used to examine the technical efficiency in a constant returns to scale model, a variable returns to scale model, and the scale efficiency of EMRRTs. Tobit regression was applied to analyze the effects of corresponding influencing factors. The average technical efficiency scores under constant returns to scale, variable returns to scale, and the scale efficiency scores of the 62 units of analysis were 77.95%, 89.00%, and 87.47%, respectively. The staff-to-bed ratio was significantly related to global technical efficiency. The date of rescue was significantly related to pure technical efficiency. The type of institution to which an EMRRT belonged and the staff-to-bed ratio were significantly related to scale efficiency. This study provides evidence that supports improvements to EMRRT efficiency and serves as a reference for earthquake emergency medical rapid assistance leaders and teams.

Measuring the efficiency of dental departments in medical centers: a nonparametric analysis approach.

PubMed

Wang, Su-Chen; Tsai, Chi-Cheng; Huang, Shun-Te; Hong, Yu-Jue

2002-12-01

Data envelopment analysis (DEA), a cross-sectional study design based on secondary data analysis, was used to evaluate the relative operational efficiency of 16 dental departments in medical centers in Taiwan in 1999. The results indicated that 68.7% of all dental departments in medical centers had poor performance in terms of overall efficiency and scale efficiency. All relatively efficient dental departments were in private medical centers. Half of these dental departments were unable to fully utilize available medical resources. 75.0% of public medical centers did not take full advantage of medical resources at their disposal. In the returns to scale, 56.3% of dental departments in medical centers exhibited increasing returns to scale, due to the insufficient scale influencing overall hospital operational efficiency. Public medical centers accounted for 77.8% of the institutions affected. The scale of dental departments in private medical centers was more appropriate than those in public medical centers. In the sensitivity analysis, the numbers of residents, interns, and published papers were used to assess teaching and research. Greater emphasis on teaching and research in medical centers has a large effect on the relative inefficiency of hospital operation. Dental departments in private medical centers had a higher mean overall efficiency score than those in public medical centers, and the overall efficiency of dental departments in non-university hospitals was greater than those in university hospitals. There was no information to evaluate the long-term efficiency of each dental department in all hospitals. A different combination of input and output variables, using common multipliers for efficiency value measurements in DEA, may help establish different pioneering dental departments in hospitals.

Scheduling and Pricing for Expected Ramp Capability in Real-Time Power Markets

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ela, Erik; O'Malley, Mark

2016-05-01

Higher variable renewable generation penetrations are occurring throughout the world on different power systems. These resources increase the variability and uncertainty on the system which must be accommodated by an increase in the flexibility of the system resources in order to maintain reliability. Many scheduling strategies have been discussed and introduced to ensure that this flexibility is available at multiple timescales. To meet variability, that is, the expected changes in system conditions, two recent strategies have been introduced: time-coupled multi-period market clearing models and the incorporation of ramp capability constraints. To appropriately evaluate these methods, it is important to assessmore » both efficiency and reliability. But it is also important to assess the incentive structure to ensure that resources asked to perform in different ways have the proper incentives to follow these directions, which is a step often ignored in simulation studies. We find that there are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. We also find that look-ahead horizon length in multi-period market models can impact incentives. This paper proposes scheduling and pricing methods that ensure expected ramps are met reliably, efficiently, and with associated prices based on true marginal costs that incentivize resources to do as directed by the market. Case studies show improvements of the new method.« less

Enhancing Instructional Problem Solving: An Efficient System for Assisting Struggling Learners. Practical Intervention in the Schools Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Begeny, John C.; Schulte, Ann C.; Johnson, Kent

2012-01-01

This book presents a schoolwide model of instructional support designed to make the most of available time, resources, and personnel--one that is also fully compatible with other problem-solving models, such as response to intervention. The authors provide a comprehensive and cohesive framework for linking assessment and intervention. They show…

Sustainability assessment of regional water resources under the DPSIR framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Shikun; Wang, Yubao; Liu, Jing; Cai, Huanjie; Wu, Pute; Geng, Qingling; Xu, Lijun

2016-01-01

Fresh water is a scarce and critical resource in both natural and socioeconomic systems. Increasing populations combined with an increasing demand for water resources have led to water shortages worldwide. Current water management strategies may not be sustainable, and comprehensive action should be taken to minimize the water budget deficit. Sustainable water resources management is essential because it ensures the integration of social, economic, and environmental issues into all stages of water resources management. This paper establishes the indicators to evaluate the sustainability of water utilization based on the Drive-Pressure-Status-Impact-Response (DPSIR) model. Based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, a comprehensive assessment of changes to the sustainability of the water resource system in the city of Bayannur was conducted using these indicators. The results indicate that there is an increase in the driving force of local water consumption due to changes in society, economic development, and the consumption structure of residents. The pressure on the water system increased, whereas the status of the water resources continued to decrease over the study period due to the increasing drive indicators. The local government adopted a series of response measures to relieve the decreasing water resources and alleviate the negative effects of the increasing driver in demand. The response measures improved the efficiency of water usage to a large extent, but the large-scale expansion in demands brought a rebounding effect, known as ;Jevons paradox; At the same time, the increasing emissions of industrial and agriculture pollutants brought huge pressures to the regional water resources environment, which caused a decrease in the sustainability of regional water resources. Changing medium and short-term factors, such as regional economic pattern, technological levels, and water utilization practices, can contribute to the sustainable utilization of regional water resources.

Global megatrends and their implications for environmental assessment practice

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Retief, Francois, E-mail: francois.retief@nwu.ac.za; Bond, Alan; Research Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University

This paper addresses the future of environmental assessment (EA) practice in light of a rapidly changing world. We apply a literature review-based methodology to firstly identify key global megatrends and then reflect upon the implications for EA practice based on some known challenges. The key megatrends identified are synthesised into six categories: i) demographics, ii) urbanization, iii) technological innovation, iv) power shifts, v) resource scarcity and vi) climate change. We then discuss the implications of these megatrends for EA practice against four known EA challenges namely: dealing with i) complexity and uncertainty, ii) efficiency, iii) significance and iv) communication andmore » participation. Our analysis suggests important implications for EA practice such as: increased difficulties with accuracy of prediction; the need for facilitative adaptation; an increase in the occurrence of unexpected events; higher expectations for procedural efficiency; challenges with information and communication management; dealing with significance judgements; and mitigation amidst resource scarcity and increasing pressures on earth systems. The megatrends underscore the need for continued evolution of EA thinking and practice, especially moving away from seeking a predictable single future or outcome towards the possibility of multiple scenarios with associated adaptability and enhanced system resilience capable of responding to rapid change.« less

SPATIALLY-BALANCED SAMPLING OF NATURAL RESOURCES IN THE PRESENCE OF FRAME IMPERFECTIONS

EPA Science Inventory

The spatial distribution of a natural resource is an important consideration in designing an efficient survey or monitoring program for the resource. Generally, samples that are more or less evenly dispersed over the extent of the resource will be more efficient than simple rando...

Organizational Impact of the Introduction of a New Portable Syringe Pump for Iloprost Therapy in Italian Hospital Settings

PubMed Central

Restelli, Umberto; Faggioli, Paola; Scolari, Francesca; Gussoni, Gualberto; Valerio, Antonella; Sciascera, Alba; Croce, Davide; Mazzone, Antonino

2015-01-01

Purpose: The study aims at assessing the organizational and economic impact related to the use of a new portable syringe pump (Pompa Infonde®, Italfarmaco S.p.A., Cinisello Balsamo, Italy) at a hospital level. Methodology: Based on the HTA approach, the analysis assessed the organizational and economic impact of the new device at hospital level, using the traditional methods of Iloprost infusion as comparator. After a pilot evaluation, the organizational impact was assessed within 24 Italian hospitals. Structured interviews were conducted with clinicians and nurses. According to the Hospital-Based HTA approach, a questionnaire assessed the impact on human resources, training activities, internal meetings, spaces needed, facilities, clinical practice implications. Using Activity Based Costing approach, the economic evaluation was performed within the pilot center “Ospedale Civile” of Legnano, Italy. Findings: The new device leads to a positive managerial impact, with a substantial reduction of time to monitor patients by nurses. This resulted in a better management of human resources and in a reduction in nursing cost. Although a mild negative impact on training time for personnel, the structured interviews allowed the identification of three main areas of positive impact: (i) efficiency of internal processes, (ii) clinical pathways, (iii) synergies between wards. Originality: The organizational impact of Pompa Infonde®, showed that it is an efficient alternative to traditional methods, with benefits in the management of patients administered with Iloprost.

Cardiovascular risk assessment in low-resource settings: a consensus document of the European Society of Hypertension Working Group on Hypertension and Cardiovascular Risk in Low Resource Settings

PubMed Central

Modesti, Pietro A.; Agostoni, Piergiuseppe; Agyemang, Charles; Basu, Sanjay; Benetos, Athanase; Cappuccio, Francesco P.; Ceriello, Antonio; Del Prato, Stefano; Kalyesubula, Robert; O’Brien, Eoin; Kilama, Michael O.; Perlini, Stefano; Picano, Eugenio; Reboldi, Gianpaolo; Remuzzi, Giuseppe; Stuckler, David; Twagirumukiza, Marc; Van Bortel, Luc M.; Watfa, Ghassan; Zhao, Dong; Parati, Gianfranco

2014-01-01

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010 confirms ischemic heart disease and stroke as the leading cause of death and that hypertension is the main associated risk factor worldwide. How best to respond to the rising prevalence of hypertension in resource-deprived settings is a topic of ongoing public-health debate and discussion. In low-income and middle-income countries, socioeconomic inequality and cultural factors play a role both in the development of risk factors and in the access to care. In Europe, cultural barriers and poor communication between health systems and migrants may limit migrants from receiving appropriate prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. To use more efficiently resources available and to make treatment cost-effective at the patient level, cardiovascular risk approach is now recommended. In 2011, The European Society of Hypertension established a Working Group on ‘Hypertension and Cardiovascular risk in low resource settings’, which brought together cardiologists, diabetologists, nephrologists, clinical trialists, epidemiologists, economists, and other stakeholders to review current strategies for cardiovascular risk assessment in population studies in low-income and middle-income countries, their limitations, possible improvements, and future interests in screening programs. This report summarizes current evidence and presents highlights of unmet needs. PMID:24577410

[Research on resources chemistry of Chinese medicinal materials and resources recycling utilization ways and goals and tasks].

PubMed

Duan, Jin-ao; Su, Shu-lan; Guo, Sheng; Jiang, Shu; Liu, Pei; Yan, Hui; Qian, Da-wei; Zhu, Hua-xu; Tang, Yu-ping; Wu, Qi-nan

2015-09-01

The objects of research on the resources chemistry of Chinese medicinal materials (RCCMM) are promotion of efficient production, rational utilization and improving quality of CMM and natural products. The development of TCM cause depends on the efficient utilization and sustainable development of CMM, hinges on the technologies and methods for using and discovering medicinal biological resources, stand or fall on the extension of industy chains, detailed utilizaion of resource chemical components by multi-way, multi-level. All of these may help to the recycling utilization and sound development of RCMM. In this article, five respects were discussed to the RCCMM researches and resources recycling utilization ways and goals and tasks. First, based on the principle of resource scarcity, discovering or replacing CMM resources, protecting the rare or endangered species or resources. Second, based on the multifunctionality of CMM, realizing the value-added and value compensation, and promoting the utilization efficiency through systermatic and detailed exploitation and utilization. Third, based on the resource conservation and environment-friendly, reducing raw material consumption, lowering cost, promoting recycling utilization and elevating utilization efficiency. Fourth, based on the stratege of turning harm into good, using the invasive alien biological resources by multi-ways and enriching the medicial resources. Fifth, based on the method of structure modification of chemical components, exploring and enhancing the utility value of resouces chemical substances. These data should provide references and attention for improving the utilization efficiency, promoting the development of recycling economy, and changing the mode of economic growth of agriculture and industry of CMM fundamentally.

Assessment of geothermal resources of the United States, 1975

USGS Publications Warehouse

White, Donald Edward; Williams, David L.

1975-01-01

This assessment of geothermal resources of the United States consists of two major parts: (1) estimates of total heat in the ground to a depth of 10 km and (2) estimates of the part of this total heat that is recoverable with present technology, regardless of price. No attempt has been made to consider most aspects of the legal, environmental, and institutional limitations in exploiting these resouces. In general, the average heat content of rocks is considerably higher in the Western United States than in the East. This also helps to explain why the most favorable hydrothermal convection systems and the hot young igneous systems occur in the West. Resources of the most attractive identified convection systems (excluding national parks) with predicted reservoir temperatures above 150 deg C have an estimated electrical production potential of about 8,000 megawatt century, or about 26,000 megawatt for 30 years. Assumptions in this conversion are: (1) one-half of the volume of the heat reservoirs is porous and permeable, (2) one-half of the heat of the porous, permeable parts is recoverable in fluids at the wellheads, and (3) the conversion efficiency of heat in wellhead fluids to electricity ranges from about 8 to 20 percent , depending on temperature and kind of fluid (hot water or steam). The estimated overall efficiency of conversion of heat in the ground to electrical energy generally ranges from less than 2 to 5 percent, depending on type of system and reservoir temperature. (See also W77-07477) (Woodard-USGS)

Technique for Reduction of Environmental Pollution from Construction Wastes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bakaeva, N. V.; Klimenko, M. Y.

2017-11-01

The results of the research on the negative impact construction wastes have on the urban environment and construction ecological safety are described. The research results are based on the statistical data and indicators calculated with the use of environmental pollution assessment in the restoration system of urban buildings technical conditions. The technique for the reduction of environmental pollution from construction wastes is scientifically based on the analytic summary of scientific and practical results for ecological safety ensuring at major overhaul and current repairs (reconstruction) of the buildings and structures. It is also based on the practical application of the probability theory method, system analysis and disperse system theory. It is necessary to execute some stages implementing the developed technique to reduce environmental pollution from construction wastes. The stages include various steps starting from information collection to the system formation with optimum performance characteristics which are more resource saving and energy efficient for the accumulation of construction wastes from urban construction units. The following tasks are solved under certain studies: basic data collection about construction wastes accumulation; definition and comparison of technological combinations at each system functional stage intended for the reduction of construction wastes discharge into the environment; assessment criteria calculation of resource saving and energy efficiency; optimum working parameters of each implementation stage are created. The urban construction technique implementation shows that the resource saving criteria are from 55.22% to 88.84%; potential of construction wastes recycling is 450 million tons of construction damaged elements (parts).

The first Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nordberg, W.

1973-01-01

The first Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1) makes images of the earth's surface in four portions of the electromagnetic spectrum with sufficient spatial resolution and with a minimum of geometric distortions, so that these images may be applied experimentally to the study of geophysical processes relating to earth resources, to the exploration and conservation of these resources, and to the assessments of environmental stresses. During the first six months of operation, ERTS-1 has imaged 6.5 million square kilometers of the earth's surface every day, covering most major land masses and coastal zones as well as both polar regions of this planet. These images as well as the results of their analyses are available to all people throughout the world. Scientific investigators of all countries have been invited to participate in the utilization of ERTS-1 observations. Many of them have already demonstrated the great efficiency, economy, and reliability of making earth surveys from space.

Probability theory versus simulation of petroleum potential in play analysis

USGS Publications Warehouse

Crovelli, R.A.

1987-01-01

An analytic probabilistic methodology for resource appraisal of undiscovered oil and gas resources in play analysis is presented. This play-analysis methodology is a geostochastic system for petroleum resource appraisal in explored as well as frontier areas. An objective was to replace an existing Monte Carlo simulation method in order to increase the efficiency of the appraisal process. Underlying the two methods is a single geologic model which considers both the uncertainty of the presence of the assessed hydrocarbon and its amount if present. The results of the model are resource estimates of crude oil, nonassociated gas, dissolved gas, and gas for a geologic play in terms of probability distributions. The analytic method is based upon conditional probability theory and a closed form solution of all means and standard deviations, along with the probabilities of occurrence. ?? 1987 J.C. Baltzer A.G., Scientific Publishing Company.

An overview of suite for automated global electronic biosurveillance (SAGES)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lewis, Sheri L.; Feighner, Brian H.; Loschen, Wayne A.; Wojcik, Richard A.; Skora, Joseph F.; Coberly, Jacqueline S.; Blazes, David L.

2012-06-01

Public health surveillance is undergoing a revolution driven by advances in the field of information technology. Many countries have experienced vast improvements in the collection, ingestion, analysis, visualization, and dissemination of public health data. Resource-limited countries have lagged behind due to challenges in information technology infrastructure, public health resources, and the costs of proprietary software. The Suite for Automated Global Electronic bioSurveillance (SAGES) is a collection of modular, flexible, freely-available software tools for electronic disease surveillance in resource-limited settings. One or more SAGES tools may be used in concert with existing surveillance applications or the SAGES tools may be used en masse for an end-to-end biosurveillance capability. This flexibility allows for the development of an inexpensive, customized, and sustainable disease surveillance system. The ability to rapidly assess anomalous disease activity may lead to more efficient use of limited resources and better compliance with World Health Organization International Health Regulations.

Implementing a resource management program for accreditation process at the medical laboratory.

PubMed

Yenice, Sedef

2009-03-01

To plan for and provide adequate resources to meet the mission and goals of a medical laboratory in compliance with the requirements for laboratory accreditation by Joint Commission International. The related policies and procedures were developed based on standard requirements for resource management. Competency assessment provided continuing education and performance feedback to laboratory employees. Laboratory areas were designed for the efficient and safe performance of laboratory work. A physical environment was built up where hazards were controlled and personnel activities were managed to reduce the risk of injuries. An Employees Occupational Safety and Health Program (EOSHP) was developed to address all types of hazardous materials and wastes. Guidelines were defined to verify that the methods would produce accurate and reliable results. An active resource management program will be an effective way of assuring that systems are in control and continuous improvement is in progress.

Assessing Reservoir Depositional Environments to Develop and Quantify Improvements in CO 2 Storage Efficiency. A Reservoir Simulation Approach

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Okwen, Roland; Frailey, Scott; Leetaru, Hannes

2014-09-30

The storage potential and fluid movement within formations are dependent on the unique hydraulic characteristics of their respective depositional environments. Storage efficiency (E) quantifies the potential for storage in a geologic depositional environment and is used to assess basinal or regional CO 2 storage resources. Current estimates of storage resources are calculated using common E ranges by lithology and not by depositional environment. The objectives of this project are to quantify E ranges and identify E enhancement strategies for different depositional environments via reservoir simulation studies. The depositional environments considered include deltaic, shelf clastic, shelf carbonate, fluvial deltaic, strandplain, reef,more » fluvial and alluvial, and turbidite. Strategies considered for enhancing E include CO 2 injection via vertical, horizontal, and deviated wells, selective completions, water production, and multi-well injection. Conceptual geologic and geocellular models of the depositional environments were developed based on data from Illinois Basin oil fields and gas storage sites. The geologic and geocellular models were generalized for use in other US sedimentary basins. An important aspect of this work is the development of conceptual geologic and geocellular models that reflect the uniqueness of each depositional environment. Different injection well completions methods were simulated to investigate methods of enhancing E in the presence of geologic heterogeneity specific to a depositional environment. Modeling scenarios included horizontal wells (length, orientation, and inclination), selective and dynamic completions, water production, and multiwell injection. A Geologic Storage Efficiency Calculator (GSECalc) was developed to calculate E from reservoir simulation output. Estimated E values were normalized to diminish their dependency on fluid relative permeability. Classifying depositional environments according to normalized baseline E ranges ranks fluvial deltaic and turbidite highest and shelf carbonate lowest. The estimated average normalized baseline E of turbidite, and shelf carbonate depositional environments are 42.5% and 13.1%, with corresponding standard deviations of 11.3%, and 3.10%, respectively. Simulations of different plume management techniques suggest that the horizontal well, multi-well injection with brine production from blanket vertical producers are the most efficient E enhancement strategies in seven of eight depositional environments; for the fluvial deltaic depositional environment, vertical well with blanket completions is the most efficient. This study estimates normalized baseline E ranges for eight depositional environments, which can be used to assess the CO 2 storage resource of candidate formations. This study also improves the general understanding of depositional environment’s influence on E. The lessons learned and results obtained from this study can be extrapolated to formations in other US basins with formations of similar depositional environments, which should be used to further refine regional and national storage resource estimates in future editions of the Carbon Utilization and Storage Atlas of the United States. Further study could consider the economic feasibility of the E enhancement strategies identified here.« less

Remote sensing applications to Missouri environmental resources information system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Myers, R. E.

1977-01-01

An efficient system for retrieval of remotely sensed data to be used by natural resources oriented agencies, and a natural resources data system that can meet the needs of state agencies were studied. To accomplish these objectives, natural resources data sources were identified, and study of systems already in operation which address themselves to the more efficient utilization of natural resources oriented data was prepared.

SAGES: A Suite of Freely-Available Software Tools for Electronic Disease Surveillance in Resource-Limited Settings

PubMed Central

Lewis, Sheri L.; Feighner, Brian H.; Loschen, Wayne A.; Wojcik, Richard A.; Skora, Joseph F.; Coberly, Jacqueline S.; Blazes, David L.

2011-01-01

Public health surveillance is undergoing a revolution driven by advances in the field of information technology. Many countries have experienced vast improvements in the collection, ingestion, analysis, visualization, and dissemination of public health data. Resource-limited countries have lagged behind due to challenges in information technology infrastructure, public health resources, and the costs of proprietary software. The Suite for Automated Global Electronic bioSurveillance (SAGES) is a collection of modular, flexible, freely-available software tools for electronic disease surveillance in resource-limited settings. One or more SAGES tools may be used in concert with existing surveillance applications or the SAGES tools may be used en masse for an end-to-end biosurveillance capability. This flexibility allows for the development of an inexpensive, customized, and sustainable disease surveillance system. The ability to rapidly assess anomalous disease activity may lead to more efficient use of limited resources and better compliance with World Health Organization International Health Regulations. PMID:21572957

[Adjusted Clinical Groups Method (ACG) to allocate resources according to the disease burden of each health center].

PubMed

Santelices C, Emilio; Muñoz P, Fernando; Muñiz, Patricio; Rojas, José

2016-03-01

Health care must be provided with strong primary health care models, emphasizing prevention and a continued, integrated and interdisciplinary care. Tools should be used to allow a better planning and more efficient use of resources. To assess risk adjustment methodologies, such as the Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACG) developed by The Johns Hopkins University, to allow the identification of chronic condition patterns and allocate resources accordingly. We report the results obtained applying the ACG methodology in primary care systems of 22 counties for three chronic diseases, namely Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension and Heart Failure. The outcomes show a great variability in the prevalence of these conditions in the different health centers. There is also a great diversity in the use of resources for a given condition in the different health care centers. This methodology should contribute to a better distribution of health care resources, which should be based on the disease burden of each health care center.

Mission Adaptive UAS Platform for Earth Science Resource Assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dunagan, S.; Fladeland, M.; Ippolito, C.; Knudson, M.

2015-01-01

NASA Ames Research Center has led a number of important Earth science remote sensing missions including several directed at the assessment of natural resources. A key asset for accessing high risk airspace has been the 180 kg class SIERRA UAS platform, providing mission durations of up to 8 hrs at altitudes up to 3 km. Recent improvements to this mission capability are embodied in the incipient SIERRA-B variant. Two resource mapping problems having unusual mission characteristics requiring a mission adaptive capability are explored here. One example involves the requirement for careful control over solar angle geometry for passive reflectance measurements. This challenges the management of resources in the coastal ocean where solar angle combines with sea state to produce surface glint that can obscure the ocean color signal. Furthermore, as for all scanning imager applications, the primary flight control priority to fly the UAS directly to the next waypoint should compromise with the requirement to minimize roll and crab effects in the imagery. A second example involves the mapping of natural resources in the Earth's crust using precision magnetometry. In this case the vehicle flight path must be oriented to optimize magnetic flux gradients over a spatial domain having continually emerging features, while optimizing the efficiency of the spatial mapping task. These requirements were highlighted in several recent Earth Science missions including the October 2013 OCEANIA mission directed at improving the capability for hyperspectral reflectance measurements in the coastal ocean, and the Surprise Valley Mission directed at mapping sub-surface mineral composition and faults, using high-sensitivity magentometry. This paper reports the development of specific aircraft control approaches to incorporate the unusual and demanding requirements to manage solar angle, aircraft attitude and flight path orientation, and efficient (directly geo-rectified) surface and sub-surface mapping, including the near-time optimization of these sometimes conflicting requirements. *

Modeling and comparative assessment of bubbling fluidized bed gasification system for syngas production - a gateway for a cleaner future in Pakistan.

PubMed

Shehzad, Areeb; Bashir, Mohammed J K; Horttanainen, Mika; Manttari, Mika; Havukainen, Jouni; Abbas, Ghulam

2017-06-19

The present study explores the potential of MSW gasification for exergy analysis and has been recently given a premier attention in a region like Pakistan where the urbanization is rapidly growing and resources are few. The plant capacity was set at 50 MW based on reference data available and the total exergetic efficiency was recorded to be 31.5 MW. The largest irreversibility distribution appears in the gasifier followed by methanation unit and CO 2 capture. The effect of process temperature, equivalence ratio and MSW moisture content was explored for inspecting the variations in syngas composition, lower heating value, carbon conversion efficiency and cold gas efficiency. Special attention of the paper is paid to the comparative assessment of MSW gasification products in four regions, namely Pakistan, USA, UAE and Thailand. This extended study gave an insight into the spectrum of socioeconomic conditions with varying MSW compositions in order to explain the effect of MSW composition variance on the gasification products.

Development and application of a catchment scale pesticide fate and transport model for use in drinking water risk assessment.

PubMed

Pullan, S P; Whelan, M J; Rettino, J; Filby, K; Eyre, S; Holman, I P

2016-09-01

This paper describes the development and application of IMPT (Integrated Model for Pesticide Transport), a parameter-efficient tool for predicting diffuse-source pesticide concentrations in surface waters used for drinking water supply. The model was applied to a small UK headwater catchment with high frequency (8h) pesticide monitoring data and to five larger catchments (479-1653km(2)) with sampling approximately every 14days. Model performance was good for predictions of both flow (Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency generally >0.59 and PBIAS <10%) and pesticide concentrations, although low sampling frequency in the larger catchments is likely to mask the true episodic nature of exposure. The computational efficiency of the model, along with the fact that most of its parameters can be derived from existing national soil property data mean that it can be used to rapidly predict pesticide exposure in multiple surface water resources to support operational and strategic risk assessments. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Designing for multiple global user populations: increasing resource allocation efficiency for greater sustainability.

PubMed

Nadadur, G; Parkinson, M B

2012-01-01

This paper proposes a method to identify opportunities for increasing the efficiency of raw material allocation decisions for products that are simultaneously targeted at multiple user populations around the world. The values of 24 body measures at certain key percentiles were used to estimate the best-fitting anthropometric distributions for female and male adults in nine national populations, which were selected to represent the diverse target markets multinational companies must design for. These distributions were then used to synthesize body measure data for combined populations with a 1:1 female:male ratio. An anthropometric range metric (ARM) was proposed for assessing the variation of these body measures across the populations. At any percentile, ARM values were calculated as the percentage difference between the highest and lowest anthropometric values across the considered user populations. Based on their magnitudes, plots of ARM values computed between the 1st and 99 th percentiles for each body measure were grouped into low, medium, and high categories. This classification of body measures was proposed as a means of selecting the most suitable strategies for designing raw material-efficient products. The findings in this study and the contributions of subsequent work along these lines are expected to help achieve greater efficiencies in resource allocation in global product development.

AQUATOOL, a generalized decision-support system for water-resources planning and operational management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andreu, J.; Capilla, J.; Sanchís, E.

1996-04-01

This paper describes a generic decision-support system (DSS) which was originally designed for the planning stage of dicision-making associated with complex river basins. Subsequently, it was expanded to incorporate modules relating to the operational stage of decision-making. Computer-assisted design modules allow any complex water-resource system to be represented in graphical form, giving access to geographically referenced databases and knowledge bases. The modelling capability includes basin simulation and optimization modules, an aquifer flow modelling module and two modules for risk assessment. The Segura and Tagus river basins have been used as case studies in the development and validation phases. The value of this DSS is demonstrated by the fact that both River Basin Agencies currently use a version for the efficient management of their water resources.

Co-digestion of rice straw and cow dung to supply cooking fuel and fertilizers in rural India: Impact on human health, resource flows and climate change.

PubMed

Sfez, Sophie; De Meester, Steven; Dewulf, Jo

2017-12-31

Anaerobic digestion of cow dung with new feedstock such as crop residues to increase the biogas potential is an option to help overcoming several issues faced by India. Anaerobic digestion provides biogas that can replace biomass cooking fuels and reduce indoor air pollution. It also provides digestate, a fertilizer that can contribute to compensate nutrient shortage on agricultural land. Moreover, it avoids the burning of rice straw in the fields which contributes to air pollution in India and climate change globally. Not only the technical and economical feasibility but also the environmental sustainability of such systems needs to be assessed. The potential effects of implementing community digesters co-digesting cow dung and rice straw on carbon and nutrients flows, human health, resource efficiency and climate change are analyzed by conducting a Substance Flow Analysis and a Life Cycle Assessment. The implementation of the technology is considered at the level of the state of Chhattisgarh. Implementing this scenario reduces the dependency of the rural community to nitrogen and phosphorus from synthetic fertilizers only by 0.1 and 1.6%, respectively, but the dependency of farmers to potassium from synthetic fertilizers by 31%. The prospective scenario returns more organic carbon to agricultural land and thus has a potential positive effect on soil quality. The implementation of the prospective scenario can reduce the health impact of the local population by 48%, increase the resource efficiency of the system by 60% and lower the impact on climate change by 13%. This study highlights the large potential of anaerobic digestion to overcome the aforementioned issues faced by India. It demonstrates the need to couple local and global assessments and to conduct analyses at the substance level to assess the sustainability of such systems. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Parallel scalability and efficiency of vortex particle method for aeroelasticity analysis of bluff bodies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tolba, Khaled Ibrahim; Morgenthal, Guido

2018-01-01

This paper presents an analysis of the scalability and efficiency of a simulation framework based on the vortex particle method. The code is applied for the numerical aerodynamic analysis of line-like structures. The numerical code runs on multicore CPU and GPU architectures using OpenCL framework. The focus of this paper is the analysis of the parallel efficiency and scalability of the method being applied to an engineering test case, specifically the aeroelastic response of a long-span bridge girder at the construction stage. The target is to assess the optimal configuration and the required computer architecture, such that it becomes feasible to efficiently utilise the method within the computational resources available for a regular engineering office. The simulations and the scalability analysis are performed on a regular gaming type computer.

Indicators of Student Flow Rates in Honduras: An Assessment of an Alternative Methodology, with Two Methodologies for Estimating Student Flow Rates. BRIDGES Research Report No. 6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cuadra, Ernesto; Crouch, Luis

Student promotion, repetition, and dropout rates constitute the basic data needed to forecast future enrollment and new resources. Information on student flow is significantly related to policy formulation aimed at improving internal efficiency, because dropping out and grade repetition increase per pupil cost, block access to eligible school-age…

A Technical Description of the Procedures Used in Calculating School-Level Scaled Scores for the "Survey of Basic Skills: Grade 6."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mislevy, Robert J.; Bock, R. Darrell

New legislation in 1972 shifted the emphasis of the California Assessment Program (CAP) from traditional every pupil achievement testing to a more efficient multiple-matrix testing design, under which a broad spectrum of skills could be surveyed without undue expenditure of educational resources. Scale score reporting was introduced to the grade 6…

NREL: Renewable Resource Data Center - Webmaster

Science.gov Websites

Version RReDC Home Biomass Resource Information Geothermal Resource Information Solar Resource Information laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC. NREL U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency

BOARD-INVITED REVIEW: Quantifying water use in ruminant production.

PubMed

Legesse, G; Ominski, K H; Beauchemin, K A; Pfister, S; Martel, M; McGeough, E J; Hoekstra, A Y; Kroebel, R; Cordeiro, M R C; McAllister, T A

2017-05-01

The depletion of water resources, in terms of both quantity and quality, has become a major concern both locally and globally. Ruminants, in particular, are under increased public scrutiny due to their relatively high water use per unit of meat or milk produced. Estimating the water footprint of livestock production is a relatively new field of research for which methods are still evolving. This review describes the approaches used to quantify water use in ruminant production systems as well as the methodological and conceptual issues associated with each approach. Water use estimates for the main products from ruminant production systems are also presented, along with possible management strategies to reduce water use. In the past, quantifying water withdrawal in ruminant production focused on the water demand for drinking or operational purposes. Recently, the recognition of water as a scarce resource has led to the development of several methodologies including water footprint assessment, life cycle assessment, and livestock water productivity to assess water use and its environmental impacts. These methods differ with respect to their target outcome (efficiency or environmental impacts), geographic focus (local or global), description of water sources (green, blue, and gray), handling of water quality concerns, the interpretation of environmental impacts, and the metric by which results are communicated (volumetric units or impact equivalents). Ruminant production is a complex activity where animals are often reared at different sites using a range of resources over their lifetime. Additional water use occurs during slaughter, product processing, and packaging. Estimating water use at the various stages of meat and milk production and communicating those estimates will help producers and other stakeholders identify hotspots and implement strategies to improve water use efficiency. Improvements in ruminant productivity (i.e., BW and milk production) and reproductive efficiency can also reduce the water footprint per unit product. However, given that feed production makes up the majority of water use by ruminants, research and development efforts should focus on this area. More research and clarity are needed to examine the validity of assumptions and possible trade-offs between ruminants' water use and other sustainability indicators.

TextWithSurgeryPatients - A Research Hypothesis in Enhancing Education and Physical Assessment for Abdominal Surgical Patients.

PubMed

Hansen, Margaret

2016-01-01

Medical surgical nurses may not have the time or resources to provide effective pre- and post-operative instructions for patients in today's healthcare system. And, making timely physical assessments following discharge from the hospital is not always straightforward. Therefore, the risk for readmission associated with post-surgical complications is a concern. At present, mobile healthcare technologies and patient care are precipitously evolving and may serve as a resource to enhance communication between the healthcare provider and patient. A mobile telephone text message (short message service [SMS]) intervention for abdominal surgical patients may foster effective education (communication) and timely self-reported physical assessment in the home environment hence preventing deleterious outcomes. The aim of this research proposal is to identify the feasibility of using a SMS intervention via smart phones to improve health outcomes via timely communication, reach large numbers of at-risk surgical patients and, establish and sustain uniform protocols in a cost-efficient manner.

[The Probabilistic Efficiency Frontier: A Value Assessment of Treatment Options in Hepatitis C].

PubMed

Mühlbacher, Axel C; Sadler, Andrew

2017-06-19

Background The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) recommends the concept of the efficiency frontier to assess health care interventions. The efficiency frontier supports regulatory decisions on reimbursement prices for the appropriate allocation of health care resources. Until today this cost-benefit assessment framework has only been applied on the basis of individual patient-relevant endpoints. This contradicts the reality of a multi-dimensional patient benefit. Objective The objective of this study was to illustrate the operationalization of multi-dimensional benefit considering the uncertainty in clinical effects and preference data in order to calculate the efficiency of different treatment options for hepatitis C (HCV). This case study shows how methodological challenges could be overcome in order to use the efficiency frontier for economic analysis and health care decision-making. Method The operationalization of patient benefit was carried out on several patient-relevant endpoints. Preference data from a discrete choice experiment (DCE) study and clinical data based on clinical trials, which reflected the patient and the clinical perspective, respectively, were used for the aggregation of an overall benefit score. A probabilistic efficiency frontier was constructed in a Monte Carlo simulation with 10000 random draws. Patient-relevant endpoints were modeled with a beta distribution and preference data with a normal distribution. The assessment of overall benefit and costs provided information about the adequacy of the treatment prices. The parameter uncertainty was illustrated by the price-acceptability-curve and the net monetary benefit. Results Based on the clinical and preference data in Germany, the interferon-free treatment options proved to be efficient for the current price level. The interferon-free therapies of the latest generation achieved a positive net cost-benefit. Within the decision model, these therapies showed a maximum overall benefit. Due to their high additional benefit and approved prices, the therapies lie above of the extrapolated efficiency frontier, which suggests that these options have efficient reimbursement prices. Considering uncertainty, even a higher price would have resulted in a positive cost-benefit ratio. Conclusion IQWiG's efficiency frontier was used to assess the value of different treatment options in HCV. This study demonstrates that the probabilistic efficiency frontier, price-acceptability-curve and the net monetary benefit can contribute essential information to reimbursement decisions and price negotiations. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

An energetics-based honeybee nectar-foraging model used to assess the potential for landscape-level pesticide exposure dilution

PubMed Central

Focks, Andreas; Belgers, Dick; van der Steen, Jozef J.M.; Boesten, Jos J.T.I.; Roessink, Ivo

2016-01-01

Estimating the exposure of honeybees to pesticides on a landscape scale requires models of their spatial foraging behaviour. For this purpose, we developed a mechanistic, energetics-based model for a single day of nectar foraging in complex landscape mosaics. Net energetic efficiency determined resource patch choice. In one version of the model a single optimal patch was selected each hour. In another version, recruitment of foragers was simulated and several patches could be exploited simultaneously. Resource availability changed during the day due to depletion and/or intrinsic properties of the resource (anthesis). The model accounted for the impact of patch distance and size, resource depletion and replenishment, competition with other nectar foragers, and seasonal and diurnal patterns in availability of nectar-providing crops and wild flowers. From the model we derived simple rules for resource patch selection, e.g., for landscapes with mass-flowering crops only, net energetic efficiency would be proportional to the ratio of the energetic content of the nectar divided by distance to the hive. We also determined maximum distances at which resources like oilseed rape and clover were still energetically attractive. We used the model to assess the potential for pesticide exposure dilution in landscapes of different composition and complexity. Dilution means a lower concentration in nectar arriving at the hive compared to the concentration in nectar at a treated field and can result from foraging effort being diverted away from treated fields. Applying the model for all possible hive locations over a large area, distributions of dilution factors were obtained that were characterised by their 90-percentile value. For an area for which detailed spatial data on crops and off-field semi-natural habitats were available, we tested three landscape management scenarios that were expected to lead to exposure dilution: providing alternative resources than the target crop (oilseed rape) in the form of (i) other untreated crop fields, (ii) flower strips of different widths at field edges (off-crop in-field resources), and (iii) resources on off-field (semi-natural) habitats. For both model versions, significant dilution occurred only when alternative resource patches were equal or more attractive than oilseed rape, nearby and numerous and only in case of flower strips and off-field habitats. On an area-base, flower strips were more than one order of magnitude more effective than off-field habitats, the main reason being that flower strips had an optimal location. The two model versions differed in the predicted number of resource patches exploited over the day, but mainly in landscapes with numerous small resource patches. In landscapes consisting of few large resource patches (crop fields) both versions predicted the use of a small number of patches. PMID:27602273

Assessment of the SWAT model to simulate a watershed with limited available data in the Pampas region, Argentina.

PubMed

Romagnoli, Martín; Portapila, Margarita; Rigalli, Alfredo; Maydana, Gisela; Burgués, Martín; García, Carlos M

2017-10-15

Argentina has been among the world leaders in the production and export of agricultural products since the 1990s. The Carcarañá River Lower Basin (CRLB), a cropland of the Pampas region supplied by extensive rainfall, is located in an area with few streamgauging and other hydrologic/water-quality stations. Therefore, limited hydrologic data are available resulting in limited water-resources assessment. This work explores the application of Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to the CRLB in the Santa Fe province of the Pampas region. The analysis of field and remote-sensing data characterizing hydrology, water quality, soil types, land use/land cover, management practices, and crop yield, guarantee a comprehensive SWAT modeling approach. A combined manual and automated calibration and validation process incorporating sensitivity and uncertainty analysis is performed using information concerning interior watershed processes. Eleven N/P fertilizer rates are selected to simulate the impact of N fertilizer on crop yield, plant uptake, as well as runoff and leaching losses. Different indices (partial factor productivity, agronomic efficiency, apparent crop recovery efficiency of applied nutrient, internal utilization efficiency, and physiological efficiency) are considered to assess nitrogen-use efficiency. The overall quality of the fit is satisfactory considering the input data limitations. This work provides, for the first time in Argentina, a reliable tool to simulate yield response to soil quality and water availability capable to meet defined environmental targets to support decision making on planning public policies and private activities on the Pampas region. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis of the Water Resources on Baseflow River Basin in Jeju Island, Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, S.-K.; Jung, W.-Y.; Kang, M.-S.

2012-04-01

Jeju Island is a volcanic island located at the southernmost of Korea, and is the heaviest raining area in Korea, but due to its hydrological / geological characteristics different from those of inland areas, most streams are of the dry form, and it relies on groundwater for water resources. As for some streams, however, springwater is discharged at a point near the downstream of the final discharge to maintain the flow of the stream; this has been developed as the source for water supply since the past, but the studies on detail observations and analysis are yet inadequate. This study utilizes the ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) hydrometer to regularly observe the flow amount of base run-off stream, and the water resources of base discharge basin of Jeju Island were analyzed using the SWAT (Soil & Water Assessment Tool) model. The detail water resource analysis study using modeling and site observation with high precision for Jeju Island water resources is expected to become the foundation for efficient usage and security of water resources against future climate changes.

Job Scheduling with Efficient Resource Monitoring in Cloud Datacenter

PubMed Central

Loganathan, Shyamala; Mukherjee, Saswati

2015-01-01

Cloud computing is an on-demand computing model, which uses virtualization technology to provide cloud resources to users in the form of virtual machines through internet. Being an adaptable technology, cloud computing is an excellent alternative for organizations for forming their own private cloud. Since the resources are limited in these private clouds maximizing the utilization of resources and giving the guaranteed service for the user are the ultimate goal. For that, efficient scheduling is needed. This research reports on an efficient data structure for resource management and resource scheduling technique in a private cloud environment and discusses a cloud model. The proposed scheduling algorithm considers the types of jobs and the resource availability in its scheduling decision. Finally, we conducted simulations using CloudSim and compared our algorithm with other existing methods, like V-MCT and priority scheduling algorithms. PMID:26473166

Job Scheduling with Efficient Resource Monitoring in Cloud Datacenter.

PubMed

Loganathan, Shyamala; Mukherjee, Saswati

2015-01-01

Cloud computing is an on-demand computing model, which uses virtualization technology to provide cloud resources to users in the form of virtual machines through internet. Being an adaptable technology, cloud computing is an excellent alternative for organizations for forming their own private cloud. Since the resources are limited in these private clouds maximizing the utilization of resources and giving the guaranteed service for the user are the ultimate goal. For that, efficient scheduling is needed. This research reports on an efficient data structure for resource management and resource scheduling technique in a private cloud environment and discusses a cloud model. The proposed scheduling algorithm considers the types of jobs and the resource availability in its scheduling decision. Finally, we conducted simulations using CloudSim and compared our algorithm with other existing methods, like V-MCT and priority scheduling algorithms.

Principles of scarce medical resource allocation in natural disaster relief: a simulation approach.

PubMed

Cao, Hui; Huang, Simin

2012-01-01

A variety of triage principles have been proposed. The authors sought to evaluate their effects on how many lives can be saved in a hypothetical disaster. To determine an optimal scarce resource-rationing principle in the emergency response domain, considering the trade-off between lifesaving efficiency and ethical issues. A discrete event simulation model is developed to examine the efficiency of four resource-rationing principles: first come-first served, random, most serious first, and least serious first. Seven combinations of available resources are examined in the simulations to evaluate the performance of the principles under different levels of resource scarcity. The simulation results indicate that the performance of the medical resource allocation principles is related to the level of the resource scarcity. When the level of the scarcity is high, the performances of the four principles differ significantly. The least serious first principle performs best, followed by the random principle; the most serious first principle acts worst. However, when the scarcity is relieved, there are no significant differences among the random, first come-first served, and least serious first principles, yet the most serious first principle still performs worst. Although the least serious first principle exhibits the highest efficiency, it is not ethically flawless. Considering the trade off between the lifesaving efficiency and the ethical issues, random selection is a relatively fair and efficient principle for allocating scarce medical resources in natural disaster responses.

[Assessment and comparison of hospital operating efficiency under different management systems].

PubMed

2017-06-18

To assess and analyze the operation efficiency of 8 commission general public hospitals managed directly by National Health and Family Planning Commission and 8 municipal general hospitals managed directly by Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospitals in Beijing and to provide suggestions on improving service capacity and designing relevant health policy. Input and output data of 8 commission hospitals and 8 municipal hospitals were obtained from Beijing Direct-Reported Health Statistics data from 2011 to 2014. Data envelopment analysis was used as the hospital operation efficiency measurement tool. The CCR and BCC models were built to calculate technical efficiency (TE), pure technical efficiency (PTE), scale efficiency (SE) and the status of scale efficiency of 16 hospitals in 2011 and 2014; the Malmquist index model was built to analyze the total factor productivity change (TFPC), technological change (TC), technical efficiency change, pure technical efficiency change and scale efficiency change of the 16 hospitals from 2011 to 2014. In 2011, the TE, PTE and SE of the commission hospitals were higher than those of the municipal hospitals, and the TEs of the commission hospitals and the municipal hospitals were 0.918 and 0.873 respectively. In 2014, the TE, PTE and SE of commission hospitals were lower than those of the municipal hospitals, and the TE of the commission hospitals and the municipal hospitals were 0.906 and 0.951, respectively, which was contrary to the results in 2011. According to the Malmquist index model, the average of TFPC of the municipal hospitals was larger than that of the commission hospitals, the former increased 5.9% and the latter increased 2.8% per year; the average of TC was greater than the one in both the municipal hospitals and the commission hospitals, with a growth of 3.2% and 2.9% per year, respectively; the average growth of PTE in the commission hospitals was lower than that of the municipal hospitals, and the average descent of SE in the commission hospitals was larger than that in the municipal hospitals. There are significant differences in the operation efficiency between different management systems and the main factors associated with operation efficiency are the technological and management level. Given scale efficiency status and macroeconomic medical policies, the commission hospitals and the municipal hospitals require further adjusting the distribution of medical resources, and it is of great significance for all the commission hospitals and the municipal hospitals to improve the management level and resource integration capability.

Global-scale carbon and energy flows through the marine planktonic food web: An analysis with a coupled physical-biological model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stock, Charles A.; Dunne, John P.; John, Jasmin G.

2014-01-01

Global-scale planktonic ecosystem models exhibit large differences in simulated net primary production (NPP) and assessment of planktonic food web fluxes beyond primary producers has been limited, diminishing confidence in carbon flux estimates from these models. In this study, a global ocean-ice-ecosystem model was assessed against a suite of observation-based planktonic food web flux estimates, many of which were not considered in previous modeling studies. The simulation successfully captured cross-biome differences and similarities in these fluxes after calibration of a limited number of highly uncertain yet influential parameters. The resulting comprehensive carbon budgets suggested that shortened food webs, elevated growth efficiencies, and tight consumer-resource coupling enable oceanic upwelling systems to support 45% of pelagic mesozooplankton production despite accounting for only 22% of ocean area and 34% of NPP. In seasonally stratified regions (42% of ocean area and 40% of NPP), weakened consumer-resource coupling tempers mesozooplankton production to 41% and enhances export below 100 m to 48% of the global total. In oligotrophic systems (36% of ocean area and 26% of NPP), the dominance of small phytoplankton and low consumer growth efficiencies supported only 14% of mesozooplankton production and 17% of export globally. Bacterial production, in contrast, was maintained in nearly constant proportion to primary production across biomes through the compensating effects of increased partitioning of NPP to the microbial food web in oligotrophic ecosystems and increased bacterial growth efficiencies in more productive areas. Cross-biome differences in mesozooplankton trophic level were muted relative to those invoked by previous work such that significant differences in consumer growth efficiencies and the strength of consumer-resource coupling were needed to explain sharp cross-biome differences in mesozooplankton production. Lastly, simultaneous consideration of multiple flux constraints supports a highly distributed view of respiration across the planktonic food web rather than one dominated by heterotrophic bacteria. The solution herein is unlikely unique in its ability to explain observed cross-biome energy flow patterns and notable misfits remain. Resolution of existing uncertainties in observed biome-scale productivity and increasingly mechanistic physical and biological model components should yield significant refinements to estimates herein.

Trends in Austrian Resource Efficiency: An Exergy and Useful Work Analysis in Comparison to Material Use, CO2 Emissions, and Land Use

PubMed Central

Warr, Benjamin; Magerl, Andreas

2016-01-01

Summary In the past few years, resource use and resource efficiency have been implemented in the European Union (EU) environmental policy programs as well as international sustainable development programs. In their programs, the EU focuses on four resource types that should be addressed: materials, energy (or carbon dioxide [CO2] emissions), water, and land. In this article, we first discuss different perspectives on energy use and present the results of a long‐term exergy and useful work analysis of the Austrian economy for the period 1900–2012, using the methodology developed by Ayres and Warr. Second, we discuss Austrian resource efficiency by comparing the presented exergy and useful work data with material use, CO2 emissions, and land‐use data taken from statistical sources. This comparison provides, for the first time, a long‐term analysis of Austrian resource efficiency based on a broad understanding thereof and evaluates Austrian development in relation to EU and Austrian policy targets. PMID:29353991

Thinking about efficiency of resource use in forests

Treesearch

Dan Binkley; Jose Luiz Stape; Michael G. Ryan

2004-01-01

The growth of forests can be described as a function of the supply of resources, the proportion of resources captured by trees, and the efficiency with which trees use resources to fix carbon dioxide. This function can be modified to explain wood production by subtracting the allocation of biomass to other tissues and to respiration. At the scale of leaves and seconds...

Methods and tools to simulate the effect of economic instruments in complex water resources systems. Application to the Jucar river basin.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez-Nicolas, Antonio; Pulido-Velazquez, Manuel

2014-05-01

The main challenge of the BLUEPRINT to safeguard Europe's water resources (EC, 2012) is to guarantee that enough good quality water is available for people's needs, the economy and the environment. In this sense, economic policy instruments such as water pricing policies and water markets can be applied to enhance efficient use of water. This paper presents a method based on hydro-economic tools to assess the effect of economic instruments on water resource systems. Hydro-economic models allow integrated analysis of water supply, demand and infrastructure operation at the river basin scale, by simultaneously combining engineering, hydrologic and economic aspects of water resources management. The method made use of the simulation and optimization hydroeconomic tools SIMGAMS and OPTIGAMS. The simulation tool SIMGAMS allocates water resources among the users according to priorities and operating rules, and evaluate economic scarcity costs of the system by using economic demand functions. The model's objective function is designed so that the system aims to meet the operational targets (ranked according to priorities) at each month while following the system operating rules. The optimization tool OPTIGAMS allocates water resources based on an economic efficiency criterion: maximize net benefits, or alternatively, minimizing the total water scarcity and operating cost of water use. SIMGAS allows to simulate incentive water pricing policies based on marginal resource opportunity costs (MROC; Pulido-Velazquez et al., 2013). Storage-dependent step pricing functions are derived from the time series of MROC values at a certain reservoir in the system. These water pricing policies are defined based on water availability in the system (scarcity pricing), so that when water storage is high, the MROC is low, while low storage (drought periods) will be associated to high MROC and therefore, high prices. We also illustrate the use of OPTIGAMS to simulate the effect of ideal water markets by economic optimization, without considering the potential effect of transaction costs. These methods and tools have been applied to the Jucar River basin (Spain). The results show the potential of economic instruments in setting incentives for a more efficient management of water resources systems. Acknowledgments: The study has been partially supported by the European Community 7th Framework Project (GENESIS project, n. 226536), SAWARES (Plan Nacional I+D+i 2008-2011, CGL2009-13238-C02-01 and C02-02), SCARCE (Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; and EC 7th Framework Project ENHANCE (n. 308438) Reference: Pulido-Velazquez, M., Alvarez-Mendiola, E., and Andreu, J., 2013. Design of Efficient Water Pricing Policies Integrating Basinwide Resource Opportunity Costs. J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 139(5): 583-592.

Groundwater resource exploration in Salem district, Tamil Nadu using GIS and remote sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maheswaran, G.; Selvarani, A. Geetha; Elangovan, K.

2016-03-01

Since last decade, the value per barrel of potable groundwater has outpaced the value of a barrel of oil in many areas of the world. Hence, proper assessment of groundwater potential and management practices are the needs of the day. Establishing relationship between remote sensing data and hydrologic phenomenon can maximize the efficiency of water resources development projects. Present study focuses on groundwater potential assessment in Salem district, Tamil Nadu to investigate groundwater resource potential. At the same, all thematic layers important from ground water occurrence and movement point of view were digitized and integrated in the GIS environment. The weights of different parameters/themes were computed using weighed index overlay analysis (WIOA), analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy logic technique. Through this integrated GIS analysis, groundwater prospect map of the study area was prepared qualitatively. Field verification at observation wells was used to verify identified potential zones and depth of water measured at observation wells. Generated map from weighed overlay using AHP performed very well in predicting the groundwater surface and hence this methodology proves to be a promising tool for future.

Why don't Practitioners use Reservoir Optimization Methods? Results from a Survey of UK Water Managers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dobson, B.; Pianosi, F.; Wagener, T.

2016-12-01

Extensive scientific literature exists on the study of how operation decisions in water resource systems can be made more effectively through the use of optimization methods. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there is little in the literature on the implementation of these optimization methods by practitioners. We have performed a survey among UK reservoir operators to assess the current state of method implementation in practice. We also ask questions to assess the potential for implementation of operation optimization. This will help academics to target industry in their current research, identify any misconceptions in industry about the area and open new branches of research for which there is an unsatisfied demand. The UK is a good case study because the regulatory framework is changing to impose "no build" solutions for supply issues, as well as planning across entire water resource systems rather than individual components. Additionally there is a high appetite for efficiency due to the water industry's privatization and most operators are part of companies that control multiple water resources, increasing the potential for cooperation and coordination.

Oil, biological communities and contingency planning

USGS Publications Warehouse

Albers, P.H.; Frink, Lynne; Ball-Weir, Katherine; Smith, Charlotte

1995-01-01

The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 mandates the inclusion of a fish and wildlife response plan in the National Contingency Plan (NCP) and the creation of Area Committees that must develop an Area Contingency Plan (ACP). Area Contingency Plans must include a detailed annex containing a Fish and Wildlife and Sensitive Environments Plan. Tank vessels, offshore facilities, and certain onshore facilities must have response plans consistent with the requirements of the NCP and the ACP. New regulations to supersede the Type A and B procedures of the Natural Resources Damage Assessment Regulations are being developed for oil spills. Currently, four assessment methods have been proposed: (1) Type A, (2) comprehensive (Type B), (3) intermediate (between types A and B), and (4) compensation tables. The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund is approaching its ceiling of $1 billion, but only $50 million has been appropriated. Effective biological contingency planning requires extensive knowledge of (1) the environmental fate of petroleum, (2) the effects of petroleum on organisms, (3) the existing biological resources, and (4) the establishment of a system of biological priorities. The characteristics and fate of petroleum and the biological effects of petroleum are reviewed. Assessment of biological resources includes plant and animal distributions, important habitat, endangered or threatened species, and economic considerations. The establishment by Area Committees of priorities for environmental protection, injury assessment, and restoration will promote efficient spill response. Three special issues are discussed: (1) improving our ability to restore natural resources, (2) the potential role of biological diversity in spill response planning, and (3) planning for animal rehabilitation.

Land and Resource Management Issues Relevant to Deploying In-Situ Thermal Technologies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Keiter, Robert; Ruple, John; Tanana, Heather

2011-01-01

Utah is home to oil shale resources containing roughly 1.3 trillion barrels of oil equivalent and our nation’s richest oil sands resources. If economically feasible and environmentally responsible means of tapping these resources can be developed, these resources could provide a safe and stable domestic energy source for decades to come. In Utah, oil shale and oil sands resources underlay a patchwork of federal, state, private, and tribal lands that are subject to different regulatory schemes and conflicting management objectives. Evaluating the development potential of Utah’s oil shale and oil sands resources requires an understanding of jurisdictional issues and themore » challenges they present to deployment and efficient utilization of emerging technologies. The jurisdictional patchwork and divergent management requirements inhibit efficient, economic, and environmentally sustainable development. This report examines these barriers to resource development, methods of obtaining access to landlocked resources, and options for consolidating resource ownership. This report also examines recent legislative efforts to wrest control of western public lands from the federal government. If successful, these efforts could dramatically reshape resource control and access, though these efforts appear to fall far short of their stated goals. The unintended consequences of adversarial approaches to obtaining resource access may outweigh their benefits, hardening positions and increasing tensions to the detriment of overall coordination between resource managers. Federal land exchanges represent a more efficient and mutually beneficial means of consolidating management control and improving management efficiency. Independent of exchange proposals, resource managers must improve coordination, moving beyond mere consultation with neighboring landowners and sister agencies to coordinating actions with them.« less

Water intensity assessment of shale gas resources in the Wattenberg field in northeastern Colorado.

PubMed

Goodwin, Stephen; Carlson, Ken; Knox, Ken; Douglas, Caleb; Rein, Luke

2014-05-20

Efficient use of water, particularly in the western U.S., is an increasingly important aspect of many activities including agriculture, urban, and industry. As the population increases and agriculture and energy needs continue to rise, the pressure on water and other natural resources is expected to intensify. Recent advances in technology have stimulated growth in oil and gas development, as well as increasing the industry's need for water resources. This study provides an analysis of how efficiently water resources are used for unconventional shale development in Northeastern Colorado. The study is focused on the Wattenberg Field in the Denver-Julesberg Basin. The 2000 square mile field located in a semiarid climate with competing agriculture, municipal, and industrial water demands was one of the first fields where widespread use of hydraulic fracturing was implemented. The consumptive water intensity is measured using a ratio of the net water consumption and the net energy recovery and is used to measure how efficiently water is used for energy extraction. The water and energy use as well as energy recovery data were collected from 200 Noble Energy Inc. wells to estimate the consumptive water intensity. The consumptive water intensity of unconventional shale in the Wattenberg is compared with the consumptive water intensity for extraction of other fuels for other energy sources including coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear, and renewables. 1.4 to 7.5 million gallons is required to drill and hydraulically fracture horizontal wells before energy is extracted in the Wattenberg Field. However, when the large short-term total freshwater-water use is normalized to the amount of energy produced over the lifespan of a well, the consumptive water intensity is estimated to be between 1.8 and 2.7 gal/MMBtu and is similar to surface coal mining.

A Framework to Survey the Energy Efficiency of Installed Motor Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rao, Prakash; Hasanbeigi, Ali; McKane, Aimee

2013-08-01

While motors are ubiquitous throughout the globe, there is insufficient data to properly assess their level of energy efficiency across regional boundaries. Furthermore, many of the existing data sets focus on motor efficiency and neglect the connected drive and system. Without a comprehensive survey of the installed motor system base, a baseline energy efficiency of a country or region’s motor systems cannot be developed. The lack of data impedes government agencies, utilities, manufacturers, distributers, and energy managers when identifying where to invest resources to capture potential energy savings, creating programs aimed at reducing electrical energy consumption, or quantifying the impactsmore » of such programs. This paper will outline a data collection framework for use when conducting a survey under a variety of execution models to characterize motor system energy efficiency within a country or region. The framework is intended to standardize the data collected ensuring consistency across independently conducted surveys. Consistency allows for the surveys to be leveraged against each other enabling comparisons to motor system energy efficiencies from other regions. In creating the framework, an analysis of various motor driven systems, including compressed air, pumping, and fan systems, was conducted and relevant parameters characterizing the efficiency of these systems were identified. A database using the framework will enable policymakers and industry to better assess the improvement potential of their installed motor system base particularly with respect to other regions, assisting in efforts to promote improvements to the energy efficiency of motor driven systems.« less

Universal immunogenicity validation and assessment during early biotherapeutic development to support a green laboratory.

PubMed

Bautista, Ami C; Zhou, Lei; Jawa, Vibha

2013-10-01

Immunogenicity support during nonclinical biotherapeutic development can be resource intensive if supported by conventional methodologies. A universal indirect species-specific immunoassay can eliminate the need for biotherapeutic-specific anti-drug antibody immunoassays without compromising quality. By implementing the R's of sustainability (reduce, reuse, rethink), conservation of resources and greener laboratory practices were achieved in this study. Statistical analysis across four biotherapeutics supported identification of consistent product performance standards (cut points, sensitivity and reference limits) and a streamlined universal anti-drug antibody immunoassay method implementation strategy. We propose an efficient, fit-for-purpose, scientifically and statistically supported nonclinical immunogenicity assessment strategy. Utilization of a universal method and streamlined validation, while retaining comparability to conventional immunoassays and meeting the industry recommended standards, provides environmental credits in the scientific laboratory. Collectively, individual reductions in critical material consumption, energy usage, waste and non-environment friendly consumables, such as plastic and paper, support a greener laboratory environment.

The influence of mixed tree plantations on the nutrition of individual species: a review.

PubMed

Richards, Anna E; Forrester, David I; Bauhus, Jürgen; Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael

2010-09-01

Productivity of tree plantations is a function of the supply, capture and efficiency of use of resources, as outlined in the Production Ecology Equation. Species interactions in mixed-species stands can influence each of these variables. The importance of resource-use efficiency in determining forest productivity has been clearly demonstrated in monocultures; however, substantial knowledge gaps remain for mixtures. This review examines how the physiology and morphology of a given species can vary depending on whether it grows in a mixture or monoculture. We outline how physiological and morphological shifts within species, resulting from interactions in mixtures, may influence the three variables of the Production Ecology Equation, with an emphasis on nutrient resources [nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P)]. These include (i) resource availability, including soil nutrient mineralization, N₂ fixation and litter decomposition; (ii) proportion of resources captured, resulting from shifts in spatial, temporal and chemical patterns of root dynamics; (iii) resource-use efficiency. We found that more than 50% of mixed-species studies report a shift to greater above-ground nutrient content of species grown in mixtures compared to monocultures, indicating an increase in the proportion of resources captured from a site. Secondly, a meta-analysis showed that foliar N concentrations significantly increased for a given species in a mixture containing N₂-fixing species, compared to a monoculture, suggesting higher rates of photosynthesis and greater resource-use efficiency. Significant shifts in N- and P-use efficiencies of a given species, when grown in a mixture compared to a monoculture, occurred in over 65% of studies where resource-use efficiency could be calculated. Such shifts can result from changes in canopy photosynthetic capacities, changes in carbon allocation or changes to foliar nutrient residence times of species in a mixture. We recommend that future research focus on individual species' changes, particularly with respect to resource-use efficiency (including nutrients, water and light), when trees are grown in mixtures compared to monocultures. A better understanding of processes responsible for changes to tree productivity in mixed-species tree plantations can improve species, and within-species, selection so that the long-term outcome of mixtures is more predictable.

Assessment of different pretreatment technologies for efficient bioconversion of lignocellulose to ethanol.

PubMed

Singh, Jitendra K; Vyas, Preeti; Dubey, Anamika; Upadhyaya, Chandrama Prakash; Kothari, Richa; Tyagi, Vineet Veer; Kumar, Ashwani

2018-06-01

The future supply of energy to meet growing energy demand of rapidly exapanding populations is based on wide energy resources, particularly the renewable ones. Among all resources, lignocellulosic biomasses such as agriculture, forest, and agro-industrial residues are the most abundant and easily available bioresource for biorefineries to provide fuels, chemicals, and materials. However, pretreatment of biomass is required to overcome the physical and chemical barriers that exist in the lignin-carbohydrate composite and pretreatment facilitate the entry of biocatalysts for the conversion of biomass into fermentable sugars and other by-products. Therefore, pretreatment of the biomass is necessary prerequisite for efficient hydrolysis of lignocelluloses into different type of fermentable sugars. The physiochemical, biochemical and biological pretreatment methods are considered as most promising technologies for the biomass hydrolysis and are discussed in this review article. We also discussed the recent advancements and modern trends in pretreatment methods of lignocelluloses conversion into ethanol with special focus on fermentation methods.

Beyond the plot: technology extrapolation domains for scaling out agronomic science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rattalino Edreira, Juan I.; Cassman, Kenneth G.; Hochman, Zvi; van Ittersum, Martin K.; van Bussel, Lenny; Claessens, Lieven; Grassini, Patricio

2018-05-01

Ensuring an adequate food supply in systems that protect environmental quality and conserve natural resources requires productive and resource-efficient cropping systems on existing farmland. Meeting this challenge will be difficult without a robust spatial framework that facilitates rapid evaluation and scaling-out of currently available and emerging technologies. Here we develop a global spatial framework to delineate ‘technology extrapolation domains’ based on key climate and soil factors that govern crop yields and yield stability in rainfed crop production. The proposed framework adequately represents the spatial pattern of crop yields and stability when evaluated over the data-rich US Corn Belt. It also facilitates evaluation of cropping system performance across continents, which can improve efficiency of agricultural research that seeks to intensify production on existing farmland. Populating this biophysical spatial framework with appropriate socio-economic attributes provides the potential to amplify the return on investments in agricultural research and development by improving the effectiveness of research prioritization and impact assessment.

Preliminary assessment of the velocity pump reaction turbine as a geothermal total-flow expander

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demuth, O. J.

1984-06-01

The velocity pump reaction turbine (VPRT) was evaluated as a total flow expander in a geothermal-electric conversion cycle. Values of geofluid effectiveness of VPRT systems were estimated for conditions consisting of: a 360(F) geothermal resource, 60 F wet-bulb ambient temperature, zero and 0.003 mass concentrations of dissolved noncondensible gas in the geofluid, 100 and 120 F condensing temperatures, and engine efficiencies ranging from 0.4 to 1.0. Achievable engine efficiencies were estimated to range from 0.77, with plant geofluid effectiveness values ranging as high as 9.5 watt hr-lbm geofluid for the 360 F resource temperature. This value is competitive with magnitudes of geofluid effectiveness projected for advanced binary plants, and is on the order of 40% higher than estimates for dual-flash steam and other total flow systems reviewed. Because of its potentially high performance and relative simplicity, the VPRT system appears to warrant further investigation toward its use in a well-head geothermal plant.

An Analysis of Organizational Performance Based on Hospital Specialization Level and Strategy Type

PubMed Central

Kim, Han-Sung; Kim, Young-Hoon; Woo, Jung-Sik; Hyun, Sook-Jung

2015-01-01

Introduction Hospitals are studying the focused factory concept and attempting to increase their power in a competitive industry by becoming more specialized. Methodology This study uses the information theory index (ITI) and the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI) to analyze the extent of specialization by Korean hospitals that receive national health insurance reimbursements. Hierarchical regression analysis is used to assess the impact of hospital specialization on the following four aspects of operational performance: productivity, profitability, efficiency and quality of care. Study Results The results show that a focused strategy (high HHI) improves the income and adjusted number of patients per specialist through the efficient utilization of human resources. However, a diversified strategy (high ITI) improves the hospital utilization ratio, income per bed and adjusted number of patients per bed (controlling for material resources such as beds). In addition, as the concentration index increases, case-mix mortality rates and referral rates decrease, indicating that specialization has a positive relationship with quality of care. PMID:26218570

An Analysis of Organizational Performance Based on Hospital Specialization Level and Strategy Type.

PubMed

Kim, Han-Sung; Kim, Young-Hoon; Woo, Jung-Sik; Hyun, Sook-Jung

2015-01-01

Hospitals are studying the focused factory concept and attempting to increase their power in a competitive industry by becoming more specialized. This study uses the information theory index (ITI) and the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI) to analyze the extent of specialization by Korean hospitals that receive national health insurance reimbursements. Hierarchical regression analysis is used to assess the impact of hospital specialization on the following four aspects of operational performance: productivity, profitability, efficiency and quality of care. The results show that a focused strategy (high HHI) improves the income and adjusted number of patients per specialist through the efficient utilization of human resources. However, a diversified strategy (high ITI) improves the hospital utilization ratio, income per bed and adjusted number of patients per bed (controlling for material resources such as beds). In addition, as the concentration index increases, case-mix mortality rates and referral rates decrease, indicating that specialization has a positive relationship with quality of care.

Project acceleration : making the leap from pilot to commercialization.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Borneo, Daniel R.

2010-05-01

Since the energy storage technology market is in a relatively emergent phase, narrowing the gap between pilot project status and commercialization is fundamental to the accelerating of this innovative market space. This session will explore regional market design factors to facilitate the storage enterprise. You will also hear about: quantifying transmission and generation efficiency enhancements; resource planning for storage; and assessing market mechanisms to accelerate storage adoption regionally.

Assessing the Army Power and Energy Efforts for the Warfighter

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-01

forecast some new and unexpected possibilities will emerge. Introduction Armies are dependent on power and energy . When these resources for any...battlefield. This need coincides with the National need for reducing energy dependence on foreign sources. This dependence can be minimized by improving...namely, use less energy by being more efficient, reduce dependence on oil, reduce the cost of energy , and use renewable sources where possible. That

Utilization of biomass in the U.S. for the production of ethanol fuel as a gasoline replacement. I - Terrestrial resource potential. II - Energy requirements, with emphasis on lignocellulosic conversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferchak, J. D.; Pye, E. K.

The paper assesses the biomass resource represented by starch derived from feed corn, surplus and distressed grain, and high-yield sugar crops planted on set-aside land in the U.S. It is determined that the quantity of ethanol produced may be sufficient to replace between 5 to 27% of present gasoline requirements. Utilization of novel cellulose conversion technology may in addition provide fermentable sugars from municipal, agricultural and forest wastes, and ultimately from highly productive silvicultural operations. The potential additional yield of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass appears to be well in excess of liquid fuel requirements of an enhanced-efficiency transport sector at present mileage demands. No conflict with food production would be entailed. A net-energy assessment is made for lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks' conversion to ethanol and an almost 10:1 energy yield/energy cost ratio determined. It is also found that novel cellulose pretreatment and enzymatic conversion methods still under development may significantly improve even that figure, and that both chemical-feedstocks and energy-yielding byproducts such as carbon dioxide, biogas and lignin make ethanol production potentially energy self-sufficient. A final high-efficiency production approach incorporates site-optimized, nonpolluting energy sources such as solar and geothermal.

Coexistence and community structure in a consumer resource model with implicit stoichiometry.

PubMed

Orlando, Paul A; Brown, Joel S; Wise, David H

2012-09-01

We combine stoichiometry theory and optimal foraging theory into the MacArthur consumer-resource model. This generates predictions for diet choice, coexistence, and community structure of heterotroph communities. Tradeoffs in consumer resource-garnering traits influence community outcomes. With scarce resources, consumers forage opportunistically for complementary resources and may coexist via tradeoffs in resource encounter rates. In contrast to single currency models, stoichiometry permits multiple equilibria. These alternative stable states occur when tradeoffs in resource encounter rates are stronger than tradeoffs in elemental conversion efficiencies. With abundant resources consumers exhibit partially selective diets for essential resources and may coexist via tradeoffs in elemental conversion efficiencies. These results differ from single currency models, where adaptive diet selection is either opportunistic or selective. Interestingly, communities composed of efficient consumers share many of the same properties as communities based on substitutable resources. However, communities composed of relatively inefficient consumers behave similarly to plant communities as characterized by Tilman's consumer resource theory. The results of our model indicate that the effects of stoichiometry theory on community ecology are dependent upon both consumer foraging behavior and the nature of resource garnering tradeoffs. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improving spine surgical access, appropriateness and efficiency in metropolitan, urban and rural settings

PubMed Central

Zarrabian, Mohammad; Bidos, Andrew; Fanti, Caroline; Young, Barry; Drew, Brian; Puskas, David; Rampersaud, Raja

2017-01-01

Background The Inter-professional Spine Assessment and Education Clinics (ISAEC) were developed to improve primary care assessment, education and management of patients with persistent or recurrent low back pain–related symptoms. This study aims to determine the effect of ISAEC on access for surgical assessment, referral appropriateness and efficiency for patients meeting a priori referral criteria in rural, urban and metropolitan settings. Methods We conducted a retrospective review of prospective data from networked ISAEC clinics in Thunder Bay, Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario. For patients meeting surgical referral criteria, wait times for surgical assessment, surgical referral–related magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and appropriateness of referral were recorded. Results Overall 422 patients, representing 10% of all ISAEC patients in the study period, were referred for surgical assessment. The average wait times for surgical assessment were 5.4, 4.3 and 2.2 weeks at the metropolitan, urban and rural centres, respectively. Referral MRI usage for the group decreased by 31%. Of the patients referred for formal surgical assessment, 80% had leg-dominant pain and 96% were deemed appropriate surgical referrals. Conclusion Contrary to geographic concentration of health care resources in metropolitan settings, the greatest decrease in wait times was achieved in the rural setting. A networked, shared-cared model of care for patients with low back pain–related symptoms significantly improved access for surgical assessment despite varying geographic practice settings and barriers. The greatest reductions were noted in the rural setting. In addition, significant improvements in referral appropriateness and efficiency were achieved compared with historical reports across all sites.

Open Source GIS based integrated watershed management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Byrne, J. M.; Lindsay, J.; Berg, A. A.

2013-12-01

Optimal land and water management to address future and current resource stresses and allocation challenges requires the development of state-of-the-art geomatics and hydrological modelling tools. Future hydrological modelling tools should be of high resolution, process based with real-time capability to assess changing resource issues critical to short, medium and long-term enviromental management. The objective here is to merge two renowned, well published resource modeling programs to create an source toolbox for integrated land and water management applications. This work will facilitate a much increased efficiency in land and water resource security, management and planning. Following an 'open-source' philosophy, the tools will be computer platform independent with source code freely available, maximizing knowledge transfer and the global value of the proposed research. The envisioned set of water resource management tools will be housed within 'Whitebox Geospatial Analysis Tools'. Whitebox, is an open-source geographical information system (GIS) developed by Dr. John Lindsay at the University of Guelph. The emphasis of the Whitebox project has been to develop a user-friendly interface for advanced spatial analysis in environmental applications. The plugin architecture of the software is ideal for the tight-integration of spatially distributed models and spatial analysis algorithms such as those contained within the GENESYS suite. Open-source development extends knowledge and technology transfer to a broad range of end-users and builds Canadian capability to address complex resource management problems with better tools and expertise for managers in Canada and around the world. GENESYS (Generate Earth Systems Science input) is an innovative, efficient, high-resolution hydro- and agro-meteorological model for complex terrain watersheds developed under the direction of Dr. James Byrne. GENESYS is an outstanding research and applications tool to address challenging resource management issues in industry, government and nongovernmental agencies. Current research and analysis tools were developed to manage meteorological, climatological, and land and water resource data efficiently at high resolution in space and time. The deliverable for this work is a Whitebox-GENESYS open-source resource management capacity with routines for GIS based watershed management including water in agriculture and food production. We are adding urban water management routines through GENESYS in 2013-15 with an engineering PhD candidate. Both Whitebox-GAT and GENESYS are already well-established tools. The proposed research will combine these products to create an open-source geomatics based water resource management tool that is revolutionary in both capacity and availability to a wide array of Canadian and global users

A study of the talent training project management for semiconductor industry in Taiwan: the application of a hybrid data envelopment analysis approach.

PubMed

Kao, Ling-Jing; Chiu, Shu-Yu; Ko, Hsien-Tang

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the training institution performance and to improve the management of the Manpower Training Project (MTP) administered by the Semiconductor Institute in Taiwan. Much literature assesses the efficiency of an internal training program initiated by a firm, but only little literature studies the efficiency of an external training program led by government. In the study, a hybrid solution of ICA-DEA and ICA-MPI is developed for measuring the efficiency and the productivity growth of each training institution over the period. The technical efficiency change, the technological change, pure technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change, and the total factor productivity change were evaluated according to five inputs and two outputs. According to the results of the study, the training institutions can be classified by their efficiency successfully and the guidelines for the optimal level of input resources can be obtained for each inefficient training institution. The Semiconductor Institute in Taiwan can allocate budget more appropriately and establish withdrawal mechanisms for inefficient training institutions.

A Study of the Talent Training Project Management for Semiconductor Industry in Taiwan: The Application of a Hybrid Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

PubMed Central

Kao, Ling-Jing; Chiu, Shu-Yu; Ko, Hsien-Tang

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the training institution performance and to improve the management of the Manpower Training Project (MTP) administered by the Semiconductor Institute in Taiwan. Much literature assesses the efficiency of an internal training program initiated by a firm, but only little literature studies the efficiency of an external training program led by government. In the study, a hybrid solution of ICA-DEA and ICA-MPI is developed for measuring the efficiency and the productivity growth of each training institution over the period. The technical efficiency change, the technological change, pure technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change, and the total factor productivity change were evaluated according to five inputs and two outputs. According to the results of the study, the training institutions can be classified by their efficiency successfully and the guidelines for the optimal level of input resources can be obtained for each inefficient training institution. The Semiconductor Institute in Taiwan can allocate budget more appropriately and establish withdrawal mechanisms for inefficient training institutions. PMID:24977192

30 CFR 7.102 - Exhaust gas cooling efficiency test.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Exhaust gas cooling efficiency test. 7.102 Section 7.102 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING....102 Exhaust gas cooling efficiency test. (a) Test procedures. (1) Follow the procedures specified in...

USGS River Ecosystem Modeling: Where Are We, How Did We Get Here, and Where Are We Going?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hanson, Leanne; Schrock, Robin; Waddle, Terry; Duda, Jeffrey J.; Lellis, Bill

2009-01-01

This report developed as an outcome of the USGS River Ecosystem Modeling Work Group, convened on February 11, 2008 as a preconference session to the second USGS Modeling Conference in Orange Beach, Ala. Work Group participants gained an understanding of the types of models currently being applied to river ecosystem studies within the USGS, learned how model outputs are being used by a Federal land management agency, and developed recommendations for advancing the state of the art in river ecosystem modeling within the USGS. During a break-out session, participants restated many of the recommendations developed at the first USGS Modeling Conference in 2006 and in previous USGS needs assessments. All Work Group recommendations require organization and coordination across USGS disciplines and regions, and include (1) enhancing communications, (2) increasing efficiency through better use of current human and technologic resources, and (3) providing a national infrastructure for river ecosystem modeling resources, making it easier to integrate modeling efforts. By implementing these recommendations, the USGS will benefit from enhanced multi-disciplinary, integrated models for river ecosystems that provide valuable risk assessment and decision support tools for adaptive management of natural and managed riverine ecosystems. These tools generate key information that resource managers need and can use in making decisions about river ecosystem resources.

Linking soil systems to societal value systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helming, Katharina; Daedlow, Katrin; Techen, Anja; Kaiser, David Brian

2017-04-01

Sustainable management of soils is needed to avoid soil degradation and to maintain soil functions. This requires the assessment of how human activities drive soil management, how soil management affect soil functions and soil degradation, which trade-offs occur and how they compromise sustainable development targets. In the frame of the German research programme "Soils as a sustainable resource for the bio-economy - BonaRes", we developed an enhanced approach of the DPSIR (driver-pressure-state-impact-response) cycle which helps to assess these interrelations. Because not all soil functions can be maximized simultaneously in space and time and trade-offs are inevitable, it depends on the societal value system to decide which management practices and respective soil functional performances are valued sustainably. We analysed the applicability of three valuation concepts being prominent in research about social-ecological systems, namely resource efficiency, ecosystem services, and ethics and equity. The concept of resource efficiency is based in the life-cycle thinking and is often applied at the level of the farming systems and in the context of bio-economy strategies. It covers the use of natural (water, energy, nutrients, land) and economic resources. At the landscape level, the concept of ecosystem services is prominent. Here, the contribution of soils to the provisioning, regulating and cultural services of the natural ecosystems is considered. Ethical considerations include the intrinsic values of nature as well as issues of local and global equity between different societal groups, generations, and localities. The three concepts cover different problem dimensions and complexity levels of soil management and decision making. Alone, none of them are capable to discover complex questions of sustainable soil management and development. Rather, the exact spatial and temporal framing of the sustainability problem at stake determines which combination of the value system is appropriate. Exemplified by some studies on soil management, we conclude with an outlook on criteria for selecting and combining value systems to assess the involvement of soil functions to specific Sustainable Development Goals at different spatial, temporal and decision making scales.

Simulation-based crisis resource management training for pediatric critical care medicine: a review for instructors.

PubMed

Cheng, Adam; Donoghue, Aaron; Gilfoyle, Elaine; Eppich, Walter

2012-03-01

To review the essential elements of crisis resource management and provide a resource for instructors by describing how to use simulation-based training to teach crisis resource management principles in pediatric acute care contexts. A MEDLINE-based literature source. OUTLINE OF REVIEW: This review is divided into three main sections: Background, Principles of Crisis Resource Management, and Tools and Resources. The background section provides the brief history and definition of crisis resource management. The next section describes all the essential elements of crisis resource management, including leadership and followership, communication, teamwork, resource use, and situational awareness. This is followed by a review of evidence supporting the use of simulation-based crisis resource management training in health care. The last section provides the resources necessary to develop crisis resource management training using a simulation-based approach. This includes a description of how to design pediatric simulation scenarios, how to effectively debrief, and a list of potential assessment tools that instructors can use to evaluate crisis resource management performance during simulation-based training. Crisis resource management principles form the foundation for efficient team functioning and subsequent error reduction in high-stakes environments such as acute care pediatrics. Effective instructor training is required for those programs wishing to teach these principles using simulation-based learning. Dissemination and integration of these principles into pediatric critical care practice has the potential for a tremendous impact on patient safety and outcomes.

To assess the value of satellite imagery in resource evaluation on a national scale. [South Africa

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malan, O. G. (Principal Investigator)

1973-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. It has been shown that ERTS imagery, particularly in the form of 1:500,000 scale false color photolithographic prints, can contribute very significantly towards facilitating and accelerating (dramatically, in the case of vegetation) resource surveys and geologic mapping. Fire mapping on a national scale becomes a feasibility, numerous new geologic features, particularly lineaments, have been discovered, land use can be mapped efficiently on a regional scale and degraded areas identified. The first detailed tectonic and geomorphological maps of the Republic of South Africa will be published in the near future mainly owing to the availability of ERTS-1 imagery.

A survey and taxonomy on energy efficient resource allocation techniques for cloud computing systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hameed, Abdul; Khoshkbarforoushha, Alireza; Ranjan, Rajiv

In a cloud computing paradigm, energy efficient allocation of different virtualized ICT resources (servers, storage disks, and networks, and the like) is a complex problem due to the presence of heterogeneous application (e.g., content delivery networks, MapReduce, web applications, and the like) workloads having contentious allocation requirements in terms of ICT resource capacities (e.g., network bandwidth, processing speed, response time, etc.). Several recent papers have tried to address the issue of improving energy efficiency in allocating cloud resources to applications with varying degree of success. However, to the best of our knowledge there is no published literature on this subjectmore » that clearly articulates the research problem and provides research taxonomy for succinct classification of existing techniques. Hence, the main aim of this paper is to identify open challenges associated with energy efficient resource allocation. In this regard, the study, first, outlines the problem and existing hardware and software-based techniques available for this purpose. Furthermore, available techniques already presented in the literature are summarized based on the energy-efficient research dimension taxonomy. The advantages and disadvantages of the existing techniques are comprehensively analyzed against the proposed research dimension taxonomy namely: resource adaption policy, objective function, allocation method, allocation operation, and interoperability.« less

A new perspective on binaural integration using response time methodology: super capacity revealed in conditions of binaural masking release.

PubMed

Lentz, Jennifer J; He, Yuan; Townsend, James T

2014-01-01

This study applied reaction-time based methods to assess the workload capacity of binaural integration by comparing reaction time (RT) distributions for monaural and binaural tone-in-noise detection tasks. In the diotic contexts, an identical tone + noise stimulus was presented to each ear. In the dichotic contexts, an identical noise was presented to each ear, but the tone was presented to one of the ears 180° out of phase with respect to the other ear. Accuracy-based measurements have demonstrated a much lower signal detection threshold for the dichotic vs. the diotic conditions, but accuracy-based techniques do not allow for assessment of system dynamics or resource allocation across time. Further, RTs allow comparisons between these conditions at the same signal-to-noise ratio. Here, we apply a reaction-time based capacity coefficient, which provides an index of workload efficiency and quantifies the resource allocations for single ear vs. two ear presentations. We demonstrate that the release from masking generated by the addition of an identical stimulus to one ear is limited-to-unlimited capacity (efficiency typically less than 1), consistent with less gain than would be expected by probability summation. However, the dichotic presentation leads to a significant increase in workload capacity (increased efficiency)-most specifically at lower signal-to-noise ratios. These experimental results provide further evidence that configural processing plays a critical role in binaural masking release, and that these mechanisms may operate more strongly when the signal stimulus is difficult to detect, albeit still with nearly 100% accuracy.

A new perspective on binaural integration using response time methodology: super capacity revealed in conditions of binaural masking release

PubMed Central

Lentz, Jennifer J.; He, Yuan; Townsend, James T.

2014-01-01

This study applied reaction-time based methods to assess the workload capacity of binaural integration by comparing reaction time (RT) distributions for monaural and binaural tone-in-noise detection tasks. In the diotic contexts, an identical tone + noise stimulus was presented to each ear. In the dichotic contexts, an identical noise was presented to each ear, but the tone was presented to one of the ears 180° out of phase with respect to the other ear. Accuracy-based measurements have demonstrated a much lower signal detection threshold for the dichotic vs. the diotic conditions, but accuracy-based techniques do not allow for assessment of system dynamics or resource allocation across time. Further, RTs allow comparisons between these conditions at the same signal-to-noise ratio. Here, we apply a reaction-time based capacity coefficient, which provides an index of workload efficiency and quantifies the resource allocations for single ear vs. two ear presentations. We demonstrate that the release from masking generated by the addition of an identical stimulus to one ear is limited-to-unlimited capacity (efficiency typically less than 1), consistent with less gain than would be expected by probability summation. However, the dichotic presentation leads to a significant increase in workload capacity (increased efficiency)—most specifically at lower signal-to-noise ratios. These experimental results provide further evidence that configural processing plays a critical role in binaural masking release, and that these mechanisms may operate more strongly when the signal stimulus is difficult to detect, albeit still with nearly 100% accuracy. PMID:25202254

Urban infrastructure and water management—Science capabilities of the U.S. Geological Survey

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fisher, Shawn C.; Fanelli, Rosemary M.; Selbig, William R.

2016-04-29

Managing the urban-water cycle has increasingly become a challenge for water-resources planners and regulators faced with the problem of providing clean drinking water to urban residents. Sanitary and combined sanitary and storm sewer networks convey wastewater to centralized treatment plants. Impervious surfaces, which include roads, parking lots, and buildings, increase stormwater runoff and the efficiency by which runoff is conveyed to nearby stream channels; therefore, impervious surfaces increase the risk of urban flooding and alteration of natural ecosystems. These challenges will increase with the expansion of urban centers and the probable effects of climate change on precipitation patterns. Understanding the urban-water cycle is critical to effectively manage water resources and to protect people, infrastructure, and urban-stream ecosystems. As a leader in water-supply, wastewater, and stormwater assessments, the U.S. Geological Survey has the expertise and resources needed to monitor, model, and interpret data related to the urban-water cycle and thereby enable water-resources managers to make informed decisions.

Bio-processing of solid wastes and secondary resources for metal extraction - A review.

PubMed

Lee, Jae-Chun; Pandey, Banshi Dhar

2012-01-01

Metal containing wastes/byproducts of various industries, used consumer goods, and municipal waste are potential pollutants, if not treated properly. They may also be important secondary resources if processed in eco-friendly manner for secured supply of contained metals/materials. Bio-extraction of metals from such resources with microbes such as bacteria, fungi and archaea is being increasingly explored to meet the twin objectives of resource recycling and pollution mitigation. This review focuses on the bio-processing of solid wastes/byproducts of metallurgical and manufacturing industries, chemical/petrochemical plants, electroplating and tanning units, besides sewage sludge and fly ash of municipal incinerators, electronic wastes (e-wastes/PCBs), used batteries, etc. An assessment has been made to quantify the wastes generated and its compositions, microbes used, metal leaching efficiency etc. Processing of certain effluents and wastewaters comprising of metals is also included in brief. Future directions of research are highlighted. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Feasibility basis for use of new solid household waste processing equipment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vertakova, Y. V.; Zvyagintsev, G. L.; Babich, T. N.; Polozhentseva, Y. S.

2017-10-01

Economic efficiency assessment of innovative organizational project of solid household waste processing enterprise (SHW) is given. A distinctive feature of this project is new mining and chemical technology use of waste depolymerization. The proved feature is fuel-resource production in portion modules of tubular type. They are patented and approved under laboratory conditions. The main ways of SHW processing in the world including Russia are described. Advantages and disadvantages are revealed. Comparative analysis is carried out. Technology prioritization is a result of this analysis. During organization of such enterprise, it was proved that not only SHW processing is a result of its functioning. The other result is environmentally friendly production using secondary raw materials. These products can be sold and can have bring income. Main investment and current expenses necessary for the offered project implementation are defined. This allows making economic assessment of innovative enterprise efficiency.

[Analysis of productivity, quality and cost of first grade laboratories: blood biometry].

PubMed

Avila, L; Hernández, P; Cruz, A; Zurita, B; Terres, A M; Cruz, C

1999-04-01

Assessment of productivity, quality and production costs and determination of the efficiency of top grade clinical laboratories in Mexico. Ten laboratories were selected from among the total number (52) existing in Mexico City, and the Donabedian model of structure, process and results were applied. Blood count was selected as a tracer. The principal problems found were: inadequate distribution of trained human resources, poor glass material, inadequate analytic process and low productivity. These factors are reflected in the unit costs, which exceed reference laboratory costs by 200%. Only 50% of the laboratories analyzed generate reliable results. Only 20% of the laboratories studied operate efficiently. To solve the problems identified requires integral strategies at different levels. A specific recomendation for the improvement of quality and productivity is an assessment of the cost/benefit of creating a central laboratory and using the remaining sites exclusively for the collection of samples.

Oil and Water: Essays on the Economics of Natural Resource Usage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stolper, Samuel

As the developing world continues its pace of rapid growth and the threat of climate change intensifies, the economics of natural resource usage become increasingly important. From the perspective of both economic efficiency and distributional equity, effective policy design is correspondingly urgent. Market failures such as imperfect competition, externalities, and incomplete information plague resource markets everywhere; and both initial endowments and policy interventions often have regressive incidence. I shed light on some of these issues by studying the economics of natural resource usage in two separate empirical contexts. The first is the market for automotive fuel in Spain; I measure pass-through--the degree to which retail fuel stations "pass through" diesel taxes to final consumer prices--and use it assess the distributional impacts of energy policy. The second is the Ganga River Basin of India; I estimate the impacts of environmental regulation on river water quality and infant mortality. In both contexts, I utilize estimates of policy impacts to examine the underlying mechanisms by which affected consumers and suppliers of natural resources make decisions.

The Concept of Resource Use Efficiency as a Theoretical Basis for Promising Coal Mining Technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mikhalchenko, Vadim

2017-11-01

The article is devoted to solving one of the most relevant problems of the coal mining industry - its high resource use efficiency, which results in high environmental and economic costs of operating enterprises. It is shown that it is the high resource use efficiency of traditional, historically developed coal production systems that generates a conflict between indicators of economic efficiency and indicators of resistance to uncertainty and variability of market environment parameters. The traditional technological paradigm of exploitation of coal deposits also predetermines high, technology-driven, economic risks. The solution is shown and a real example of the problem solution is considered.

Thermodynamics Analysis of Binary Plant Generating Power from Low-Temperature Geothermal Resource

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maksuwan, A.

2018-05-01

The purpose in this research was to predict tendency of increase Carnot efficiency of the binary plant generating power from low-temperature geothermal resource. Low-temperature geothermal resources or less, are usually exploited by means of binary-type energy conversion systems. The maximum efficiency is analyzed for electricity production of the binary plant generating power from low-temperature geothermal resource becomes important. By using model of the heat exchanger equivalent to a power plant together with the calculation of the combined heat and power (CHP) generation. The CHP was solved in detail with appropriate boundary originating an idea from the effect of temperature of source fluid inlet-outlet and cooling fluid supply. The Carnot efficiency from the CHP calculation was compared between condition of increase temperature of source fluid inlet-outlet and decrease temperature of cooling fluid supply. Result in this research show that the Carnot efficiency for binary plant generating power from low-temperature geothermal resource has tendency increase by decrease temperature of cooling fluid supply.

Assessing the risk of ignition in the Russian far east within a modeling framework of fire threat.

PubMed

Loboda, Tatiana V; Csiszar, Ivan A

2007-04-01

The forests of high biological importance in the Russian Far East (RFE) have been experiencing increasing pressure from growing demands for natural resources under the changing economy of post-Soviet Russia. This pressure is further amplified by the rising threat of large and catastrophic fire occurrence, which threatens both the resources and the economic potential of the region. In this paper we introduce a conceptual Fire Threat Model (FTM) and use it to provide quantitative assessment of the risk of ignition in the Russian Far East. The remotely sensed data driven FTM is aimed at evaluating potential wildland fire occurrence and its impact and recovery potential for a given resource. This model is intended for use by resource managers to assist in assessing current levels of fire threat to a given resource, projecting the changes in fire threat under changing climate and land use, and evaluating the efficiency of various management approaches aimed at minimizing the fire impact. Risk of ignition (one of the major uncertainties within fire threat modeling) was analyzed using the MODIS active fire product. The risk of ignition in the RFE is shown to be highly variable in spatial and temporal domains. However, the number of ignition points is not directly proportional to the amount of fire occurrence in the area. Fire ignitions in the RFE are strongly linked to anthropogenic activity (transportation routes, settlements, and land use). An increase in the number of fire ignitions during summer months could be attributed to (1) disruption of the summer monsoons and subsequent changes in fire weather and (2) an increase in natural sources of fire ignitions.

Design and realization of disaster assessment algorithm after forest fire

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Aijun; Wang, Danfeng; Tang, Lihua

2008-10-01

Based on GIS technology, this paper mainly focuses on the application of disaster assessment algorithm after forest fire and studies on the design and realization of disaster assessment based on GIS. After forest fire through the analysis and processing of multi-sources and heterogeneous data, this paper integrates the foundation that the domestic and foreign scholars laid of the research on assessment for forest fire loss with the related knowledge of assessment, accounting and forest resources appraisal so as to study and approach the theory framework and assessment index of the research on assessment for forest fire loss. The technologies of extracting boundary, overlay analysis, and division processing of multi-sources spatial data are available to realize the application of the investigation method of the burnt forest area and the computation of the fire area. The assessment provides evidence for fire cleaning in burnt areas and new policy making on restoration in terms of the direct and the indirect economic loss and ecological and environmental damage caused by forest fire under the condition of different fire danger classes and different amounts of forest accumulation, thus makes forest resources protection operated in a faster, more efficient and more economical way. Finally, this paper takes Lin'an city of Zhejiang province as a test area to confirm the method mentioned in the paper in terms of key technologies.

A Total Factor Productivity Based Structure for Tactical Cluster Assessment: Empirical Investigation in the Airline Industry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vasigh, Bijan; Fleming, Kenneth

2005-01-01

In this paper we analyze and assess the efficiency of the United States (U.S.) airline industry through the total factor productivity (TFP) method. While airlines use various resources to produce a heterogeneous group of outputs, this article focuses on certain fundamental outputs as final products of selected airlines. The results from this analysis indicate that the national airlines (US. domestic carriers) have higher TFP as compared to the major airlines. While major airlines have drastically cut costs in the past few years, they also need to improve efficiency or risk going out of business. In this paper, we investigate the efficiency and productivity of a selection of U.S. airlines for the years 1996 through 2001. These years have been chosen as a good example of years in which the industry experienced normal growth and generally positively returns. Subsequent to 2001 the industry experienced two severe external shocks, namely, the September 11, 2001. terrorist attacks and the Iraq war. These anomalous shocks make the years after 2001 inconsistent with respect to the type of index developed in this article.

Initial Integrated Strategic Sustainability Plan for Fort Leonard Wood

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-01

objective of this work was to develop the initial version of a 25-year ISSP incorporating FLW’s mission and vision with its energy, environmen- tal...plans outlining the tasks and resources needed to achieve the objectives; and development of metrics for assessing progress toward each objective... development and redevelopment at Fort Leonard Wood 4.1.1 Description In the next 25 years, transform into an Installation with an efficient net- work

The use of geoinformation technologies for renewable energy and regional aspects of developing renewable energy in Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rafikova, Y. Y.; Kiseleva, S. V.; Nefedova, L. V.; Frid, S. E.

2014-12-01

The work presents the results of development of the geoinformation system "Renewable Energy Sources of Russia". Regional maps of installations and resources are presented. The problem of determination of small hydropower potential connected with the shortage of hydrological data is stated. Assessment of efficiency of techno-economic analysis of simulation-based autonomous solar lighting systems is described. Overview of regional experience, policies and targets is included.

Integration of Sustainable Practices into Standard Army MILCON Designs

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-09-01

Sustainable Installations Regional Resource Assessment (SIRRA™) web -based database analysis tool output, ERDC-CERL, 2010. 18 Roy, Sujoy, B. L. Chen, E...Water issues white paper . ERDC/CERL TR-11-27 25 streams. This policy states that in the absence of other flow limits as estab- lished by the...89 Note that flush quality in some efficient toilets is undermined by non-flushable recyclable toilet paper that builds up in the

Introduction to energy sources. [Monograph

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1978-01-01

Energy resources are reviewed in lay terms in an effort to increase the public's awareness of energy issues. Summaries of the principal sources of energy describe availability, technological requirements, and environmental impacts. The emphasis is placed on making energy use more efficient and the implications of shifting to centralized power plants, with more reliance on electricity. The purpose of this monograph is to demonstrate that energy issues can be examined and assessed by non-experts.

Resource values in analyzing fire management programs for economic efficiency

Treesearch

Irene A. Althaus; Thomas J. Mills

1982-01-01

In analyzing fire management programs for their economic efficiency, it is necessary to assign monetary values to the changes in resource outputs caused by, fire. The derivation of resource values is complicated by imperfect or nonexistent commercial market structures. The valuation concept recommended for fire program analyses is willingness-to-pay because it permits...

Teaching evidence-based medicine: Impact on students' literature use and inpatient clinical documentation.

PubMed

Sastre, Elizabeth Ann; Denny, Joshua C; McCoy, Jacob A; McCoy, Allison B; Spickard, Anderson

2011-01-01

Effective teaching of evidence-based medicine (EBM) to medical students is important for lifelong self-directed learning. We implemented a brief workshop designed to teach literature searching skills to third-year medical students. We assessed its impact on students' utilization of EBM resources during their clinical rotation and the quality of EBM integration in inpatient notes. We developed a physician-led, hands-on workshop to introduce EBM resources to all internal medicine clerks. Pre- and post-workshop measures included student's attitudes to EBM, citations of EBM resources in their clinical notes, and quality of the EBM component of the discussion in the note. Computer log analysis recorded students' online search attempts. After the workshop, students reported improved comfort using EBM and increased utilization of EBM resources. EBM integration into the discussion component of the notes also showed significant improvement. Computer log analysis of students' searches demonstrated increased utilization of EBM resources following the workshop. We describe the successful implementation of a workshop designed to teach third-year medical students how to perform an efficient EBM literature search. We demonstrated improvements in students' confidence regarding EBM, increased utilization of EBM resources, and improved integration of EBM into inpatient notes.

Human resources: the Cinderella of health sector reform in Latin America

PubMed Central

Homedes, Núria; Ugalde, Antonio

2005-01-01

Human resources are the most important assets of any health system, and health workforce problems have for decades limited the efficiency and quality of Latin America health systems. World Bank-led reforms aimed at increasing equity, efficiency, quality of care and user satisfaction did not attempt to resolve the human resources problems that had been identified in multiple health sector assessments. However, the two most important reform policies – decentralization and privatization – have had a negative impact on the conditions of employment and prompted opposition from organized professionals and unions. In several countries of the region, the workforce became the most important obstacle to successful reform. This article is based on fieldwork and a review of the literature. It discusses the reasons that led health workers to oppose reform; the institutional and legal constraints to implementing reform as originally designed; the mismatch between the types of personnel needed for reform and the availability of professionals; the deficiencies of the reform implementation process; and the regulatory weaknesses of the region. The discussion presents workforce strategies that the reforms could have included to achieve the intended goals, and the need to take into account the values and political realities of the countries. The authors suggest that autochthonous solutions are more likely to succeed than solutions imported from the outside. PMID:15659241

Determining best practices in reconnoitering sites for habitability potential on Mars using a semi-autonomous rover: A GeoHeuristic Operational Strategies Test.

PubMed

Yingst, R A; Berger, J; Cohen, B A; Hynek, B; Schmidt, M E

2017-03-01

We tested science operations strategies developed for use in remote mobile spacecraft missions, to determine whether reconnoitering a site of potential habitability prior to in-depth study (a walkabout-first strategy) can be a more efficient use of time and resources than the linear approach commonly used by planetary rover missions. Two field teams studied a sedimentary sequence in Utah to assess habitability potential. At each site one team commanded a human "rover" to execute observations and conducted data analysis and made follow-on decisions based solely on those observations. Another team followed the same traverse using traditional terrestrial field methods, and the results of the two teams were compared. Test results indicate that for a mission with goals similar to our field case, the walkabout-first strategy may save time and other mission resources, while improving science return. The approach enabled more informed choices and higher team confidence in choosing where to spend time and other consumable resources. The walkabout strategy may prove most efficient when many close sites must be triaged to a smaller subset for detailed study or sampling. This situation would arise when mission goals include finding, identifying, characterizing or sampling a specific material, feature or type of environment within a certain area.

Age-related decline in cognitive control: the role of fluid intelligence and processing speed

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Research on cognitive control suggests an age-related decline in proactive control abilities whereas reactive control seems to remain intact. However, the reason of the differential age effect on cognitive control efficiency is still unclear. This study investigated the potential influence of fluid intelligence and processing speed on the selective age-related decline in proactive control. Eighty young and 80 healthy older adults were included in this study. The participants were submitted to a working memory recognition paradigm, assessing proactive and reactive cognitive control by manipulating the interference level across items. Results Repeated measures ANOVAs and hierarchical linear regressions indicated that the ability to appropriately use cognitive control processes during aging seems to be at least partially affected by the amount of available cognitive resources (assessed by fluid intelligence and processing speed abilities). Conclusions This study highlights the potential role of cognitive resources on the selective age-related decline in proactive control, suggesting the importance of a more exhaustive approach considering the confounding variables during cognitive control assessment. PMID:24401034

Strategic Energy Management Plan for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Davenport, Lars; Smythe, Louisa; Sarquilla, Lindsey

2015-03-27

This plan outlines the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ comprehensive energy management strategy including an assessment of current practices, a commitment to improving energy performance and reducing overall energy use, and recommended actions to achieve these goals. Vision Statement The primary objective of the Strategic Energy Management Plan is to implement energy efficiency, energy security, conservation, education, and renewable energy projects that align with the economic goals and cultural values of the community to improve the health and welfare of the tribe. The intended outcomes of implementing the energy plan include job creation, capacity building, and reduced energy costsmore » for tribal community members, and tribal operations. By encouraging energy independence and local power production the plan will promote self-sufficiency. Mission & Objectives The Strategic Energy Plan will provide information and suggestions to guide tribal decision-making and provide a foundation for effective management of energy resources within the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians (SYBCI) community. The objectives of developing this plan include; Assess current energy demand and costs of all tribal enterprises, offices, and facilities; Provide a baseline assessment of the SYBCI’s energy resources so that future progress can be clearly and consistently measured, and current usage better understood; Project future energy demand; Establish a system for centralized, ongoing tracking and analysis of tribal energy data that is applicable across sectors, facilities, and activities; Develop a unifying vision that is consistent with the tribe’s long-term cultural, social, environmental, and economic goals; Identify and evaluate the potential of opportunities for development of long-term, cost effective energy sources, such as renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation, and other feasible supply- and demand-side options; and Build the SYBCI’s capacity for understanding, managing, and developing energy resources by identifying training, distribution of information materials, and community meeting needs and opportunities« less

Assessment of water availability and demand in Lake Guiers , Senegal.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sambou, D.; Weihrauch, D.; Hellwing, V.; Diekkrüger, B.; Höllermann, B.; Gaye, A. T.

2015-12-01

Assessment of water availability and demand in Lake Guiers, SenegalWater resources are critical to economic growth and social development. In most African countries, supply of drinking water to satisfy population needs is a key issue because of population growth and climate and land use change. During the last three decades, increasing population, changing patterns of water demand, and concentration of population and economic activities in urban areas has pressurize Senegal's freshwater resources. To overcome this deficit, Senegal turned, to the exploitation of the Lake Guiers. It is the sole water reservoir which can be used extensively as a stable freshwater. Its water is use for irrigating crops and sugar refinery and as a drinking water resource for urban centres, including Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, as well as for the local population and animal herds. To ensure sustainability, a greater understanding of Lake Guiers's water resources and effective management of its use will be required. In this study we developed and quantified future water situation (water availability and demand) in Lake Guiers under scenarios of climate change and population growth until 2050, using the water management model WEAP (Water Evaluation And Planning system). The results show that the pressure on Lake Guiers's water resources will increase, leading to greater competition between agriculture and municipal demand site. Decreasing inflows due to climate change will aggravate this situation. WEAP results offer basis to assister lake Guiers water resources manager for an efficient long-term planning and management. Keywords: climate change, population growth , IWRM, Lake Guiers, Senegal

Water resources management in southern Europe: clues for a research and innovation based regional hypercluster.

PubMed

Martins, G; Brito, A G; Nogueira, R; Ureña, M; Fernández, D; Luque, F J; Alcácer, C

2013-04-15

European countries are facing increasing pressures on their water resources despite stringent regulations and systematic efforts on environmental protection. In this context, research and innovation play a strategic role reinforcing the efficiency of water policies. The present study provides a multilevel assessment of research and innovation practices in the field of water resource management in southern European countries and regions (more specifically; Cyprus, Albania, Poitou-Charentes in France, Andalusia in Spain and the North of Portugal). The analysis was based on a strategic framework aimed at gaining an insight of the current constraints, as well as of the existing and future technological solutions for a better water resource management. The triple helix model proved to be a useful analytical framework for assessing the efforts of different groups towards a common goal. The analysis proved the existence of a significant evolution in the use of technological tools to assist decision-making processes in integrated river basin management in all regions. Nevertheless, the absence of formal channels for knowledge and data exchange between researchers and water resource managers complicates the formers involvement in the decision-making process regarding water allocation. Both researchers and consultants emphasize the low availability of data, together with the need to advance on water resource economics as relevant constraints in the field. The SWOT analysis showed similar concerns among the participating regions and provided a battery of effective projects that resulted in the preparation of a Joint Action Plan. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Body size mediated coexistence in swans.

PubMed

Engelhardt, Katharina A M; Ritchie, Mark E; Powell, James A

2014-01-01

Differences in body sizes may create a trade-off between foraging efficiency (foraging gains/costs) and access to resources. Such a trade-off provides a potential mechanism for ecologically similar species to coexist on one resource. We explored this hypothesis for tundra (Cygnus columbianus) and trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator), a federally protected species, feeding solely on sago pondweed (Stuckenia pectinata) tubers during fall staging and wintering in northern Utah. Foraging efficiency was higher for tundra swans because this species experienced lower foraging and metabolic costs relative to foraging gains; however, trumpeter swans (a) had longer necks and therefore had access to exclusive resources buried deep in wetland sediments and (b) were more aggressive and could therefore displace tundra swans from lucrative foraging locations. We conclude that body size differentiation is an important feature of coexistence among ecologically similar species feeding on one resource. In situations where resources are limiting and competition for resources is strong, conservation managers will need to consider the trade-off between foraging efficiency and access to resources to ensure ecologically similar species can coexist on a shared resource.

Body Size Mediated Coexistence in Swans

PubMed Central

Engelhardt, Katharina A. M.; Ritchie, Mark E.; Powell, James A.

2014-01-01

Differences in body sizes may create a trade-off between foraging efficiency (foraging gains/costs) and access to resources. Such a trade-off provides a potential mechanism for ecologically similar species to coexist on one resource. We explored this hypothesis for tundra (Cygnus columbianus) and trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator), a federally protected species, feeding solely on sago pondweed (Stuckenia pectinata) tubers during fall staging and wintering in northern Utah. Foraging efficiency was higher for tundra swans because this species experienced lower foraging and metabolic costs relative to foraging gains; however, trumpeter swans (a) had longer necks and therefore had access to exclusive resources buried deep in wetland sediments and (b) were more aggressive and could therefore displace tundra swans from lucrative foraging locations. We conclude that body size differentiation is an important feature of coexistence among ecologically similar species feeding on one resource. In situations where resources are limiting and competition for resources is strong, conservation managers will need to consider the trade-off between foraging efficiency and access to resources to ensure ecologically similar species can coexist on a shared resource. PMID:24672347

Taxonomic minimalism.

PubMed

Beattle, A J; Oliver, I

1994-12-01

Biological surveys are in increasing demand while taxonomic resources continue to decline. How much formal taxonomy is required to get the job done? The answer depends on the kind of job but it is possible that taxonomic minimalism, especially (1) the use of higher taxonomic ranks, (2) the use of morphospecies rather than species (as identified by Latin binomials), and (3) the involvement of taxonomic specialists only for training and verification, may offer advantages for biodiversity assessment, environmental monitoring and ecological research. As such, formal taxonomy remains central to the process of biological inventory and survey but resources may be allocated more efficiently. For example, if formal Identification is not required, resources may be concentrated on replication and increasing sample sizes. Taxonomic minimalism may also facilitate the inclusion in these activities of important but neglected groups, especially among the invertebrates, and perhaps even microorganisms. Copyright © 1994. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

NGDS Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Blackman, Harold; Moore, Joseph

2014-06-30

The ultimate goal of the National Geothermal Data System (NGDS) is to support the discovery and generation of geothermal sources of energy. The NGDS was designed and has been implemented to provide online access to important geothermal-related data from a network of data providers in order to: • Increase the efficiency of exploration, development and usage of geothermal energy by providing a basis for financial risk analysis of potential sites • Assist state and federal agencies in making land and resource management assessments • Foster the discovery of new geothermal resources by supporting ongoing and future geothermal-related research • Increasemore » public awareness of geothermal energy It is through the implementation of this distributed data system and its subsequent use that substantial increases to the general access and understanding of geothermal related data will result. NGDS provides a mechanism for the sharing of data thereby fostering the discovery of new resources and supporting ongoing geothermal research.« less

The role of partnership functioning and synergy in achieving sustainability of innovative programmes in community care.

PubMed

Cramm, Jane M; Phaff, Sanne; Nieboer, Anna P

2013-03-01

This cross-sectional study (conducted in April-May 2011) explored associations between partnership functioning synergy and sustainability of innovative programmes in community care. The study sample consisted of 106 professionals (of 244 individuals contacted) participating in 21 partnerships that implemented different innovative community care programmes in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Partnership functioning was evaluated by assessing leadership, resources administration and efficiency. Synergy was considered the proximal outcome of partnership functioning, which, in turn, influenced the achievement of programme sustainability. On a 5-point scale of increasing sustainability, mean sustainability scores ranged from 1.9 to 4.9. The results of the regression analysis demonstrated that sustainability was positively influenced by leadership (standardised regression coefficient β = 0.32; P < 0.001) and non-financial resources (β = 0.25; P = 0.008). No significant relationship was found between administration or efficiency and programme sustainability. Partnership synergy acted as a mediator for partnership functioning and significantly affected sustainability (β = 0.39; P < 0.001). These findings suggest that the sustainability of innovative programmes in community care is achieved more readily when synergy is created between partners. Synergy was more likely to emerge with boundary-spanning leaders, who understood and appreciated partners' different perspectives, and could bridge their diverse cultures and were comfortable sharing ideas, resources and power. In addition, the acknowledgement of and ability to use members' resources were found to be valuable in engaging partners' involvement and achieving synergy in community care partnerships. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Bio-processing of solid wastes and secondary resources for metal extraction - A review

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Jae-chun; Pandey, Banshi Dhar, E-mail: bd_pandey@yahoo.co.uk; CSIR - National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur 831007

2012-01-15

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Review focuses on bio-extraction of metals from solid wastes of industries and consumer goods. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Bio-processing of certain effluents/wastewaters with metals is also included in brief. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Quantity/composition of wastes are assessed, and microbes used and leaching conditions included. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Bio-recovery using bacteria, fungi and archaea is highlighted for resource recycling. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Process methodology/mechanism, R and D direction and scope of large scale use are briefly included. - Abstract: Metal containing wastes/byproducts of various industries, used consumer goods, and municipal waste are potential pollutants, if not treated properly. They may also be important secondary resources if processed inmore » eco-friendly manner for secured supply of contained metals/materials. Bio-extraction of metals from such resources with microbes such as bacteria, fungi and archaea is being increasingly explored to meet the twin objectives of resource recycling and pollution mitigation. This review focuses on the bio-processing of solid wastes/byproducts of metallurgical and manufacturing industries, chemical/petrochemical plants, electroplating and tanning units, besides sewage sludge and fly ash of municipal incinerators, electronic wastes (e-wastes/PCBs), used batteries, etc. An assessment has been made to quantify the wastes generated and its compositions, microbes used, metal leaching efficiency etc. Processing of certain effluents and wastewaters comprising of metals is also included in brief. Future directions of research are highlighted.« less

Smoking cessation and the Internet: a qualitative method examining online consumer behavior.

PubMed

Frisby, Genevieve; Bessell, Tracey L; Borland, Ron; Anderson, Jeremy N

2002-01-01

Smoking is a major preventable cause of disease and disability around the world. Smoking cessation support-including information, discussion groups, cognitive behavioral treatment, and self-help materials-can be delivered via the Internet. There is limited information about the reasons and methods consumers access smoking cessation information on the Internet. This study aims to determine the feasibility of a method to examine the online behavior of consumers seeking smoking cessation resources. In particular, we sought to identify the reasons and methods consumers use to access and assess the quality of these resources. Thirteen participants were recruited via the state-based Quit smoking cessation campaign, operated by the Victorian Cancer Council, in December 2001. Online behavior was evaluated using semi-structured interviews and Internet simulations where participants sought smoking cessation information and addressed set-case scenarios. Online interaction was tracked through pervasive logging with specialist software. Thirteen semi-structured interviews and 4 Internet simulations were conducted in January 2002. Participants sought online smoking cessation resources for reasons of convenience, timeliness, and anonymity-and because their current information needs were unmet. They employed simple search strategies and could not always find information in an efficient manner. Participants employed several different strategies to assess the quality of online health resources. Consumer online behavior can be studied using a combination of survey, observation, and online surveillance. However, further qualitative and observational research is required to harness the full potential of the Internet to deliver public health resources.

Simulation based energy-resource efficient manufacturing integrated with in-process virtual management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Katchasuwanmanee, Kanet; Cheng, Kai; Bateman, Richard

2016-09-01

As energy efficiency is one of the key essentials towards sustainability, the development of an energy-resource efficient manufacturing system is among the great challenges facing the current industry. Meanwhile, the availability of advanced technological innovation has created more complex manufacturing systems that involve a large variety of processes and machines serving different functions. To extend the limited knowledge on energy-efficient scheduling, the research presented in this paper attempts to model the production schedule at an operation process by considering the balance of energy consumption reduction in production, production work flow (productivity) and quality. An innovative systematic approach to manufacturing energy-resource efficiency is proposed with the virtual simulation as a predictive modelling enabler, which provides real-time manufacturing monitoring, virtual displays and decision-makings and consequentially an analytical and multidimensional correlation analysis on interdependent relationships among energy consumption, work flow and quality errors. The regression analysis results demonstrate positive relationships between the work flow and quality errors and the work flow and energy consumption. When production scheduling is controlled through optimization of work flow, quality errors and overall energy consumption, the energy-resource efficiency can be achieved in the production. Together, this proposed multidimensional modelling and analysis approach provides optimal conditions for the production scheduling at the manufacturing system by taking account of production quality, energy consumption and resource efficiency, which can lead to the key competitive advantages and sustainability of the system operations in the industry.

Final Technical Report: "Achieving Regional Energy Efficiency Potential in the Southeast”

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mahoney, Mandy

The overall objective of this award was to facilitate sharing of DOE resources and best practices as well as provide technical assistance to key stakeholders to support greater compliance with energy efficiency standards and increased energy savings. The outcomes of this award include greater awareness among key stakeholders on energy efficiency topics, increased deployment and utilization of DOE resources, and effective policies and programs to support energy efficiency in the Southeast.

Resource needs and gap analysis in achieving universal access to HIV/AIDS services: a data envelopment analysis of 45 countries.

PubMed

Zeng, Wu; Shepard, Donald S; Avila-Figueroa, Carlos; Ahn, Haksoon

2016-06-01

-To manage the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic, international donors have pledged unprecedented commitments for needed services. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) projected that low- and middle-income countries needed $25 billion to meet the 2010 HIV/AIDS goal of universal access to AIDS prevention and care, using the resource needs model (RNM). -Drawing from the results from its sister study, which used a data envelopment analysis (DEA) and a Tobit model to evaluate and adjust the technical efficiency of 61 countries in delivering HIV/AIDS services from 2002 to 2007, this study extended the DEA and developed an approach to estimate resource needs and decompose the performance gap into efficiency gap and resource gap. In the DEA, we considered national HIV/AIDS spending as the input and volume of voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) and antiretroviral treatment (ART) as the outputs. An input-oriented DEA model was constructed to project resource needs in achieving 2010 HIV/AIDS goal for 45 countries using the data in 2006, assuming that all study countries maximized efficiency. -The DEA approach demonstrated the potential to include efficiency of national HIV/AIDS programmes in resource needs estimation, using macro-level data. Under maximal efficiency, the annual projected resource needs for the 45 countries was $6.3 billion, ∼47% of their UNAIDS estimate of $13.5 billion. Given study countries' spending of $3.9 billion, improving efficiency could narrow the gap from $9.6 to $2.4 billion. The results suggest that along with continued financial commitment to HIV/AIDS, improving the efficiency of HIV/AIDS programmes would accelerate the pace to reach 2010 HIV/AIDS goals. The DEA approach provides a supplement to the AIDS RNM to inform policy making. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Resource use and efficiency, and stomatal responses to environmental drivers of oak and pine species in an Atlantic Coastal Plain forest.

PubMed

Renninger, Heidi J; Carlo, Nicholas J; Clark, Kenneth L; Schäfer, Karina V R

2015-01-01

Pine-oak ecosystems are globally distributed even though differences in anatomy and leaf habit between many co-occurring oaks and pines suggest different strategies for resource use, efficiency and stomatal behavior. The New Jersey Pinelands contain sandy soils with low water- and nutrient-holding capacity providing an opportunity to examine trade-offs in resource uptake and efficiency. Therefore, we compared resource use in terms of transpiration rates and leaf nitrogen content and resource-use efficiency including water-use efficiency (WUE) via gas exchange and leaf carbon isotopes and photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency (PNUE) between oaks (Quercus alba, Q. prinus, Q. velutina) and pines (Pinus rigida, P. echinata). We also determined environmental drivers [vapor pressure deficit (VPD), soil moisture, solar radiation] of canopy stomatal conductance (GS) estimated via sap flow and stomatal sensitivity to light and soil moisture. Net assimilation rates were similar between genera, but oak leaves used about 10% more water and pine foliage contained about 20% more N per unit leaf area. Therefore, oaks exhibited greater PNUE while pines had higher WUE based on gas exchange, although WUE from carbon isotopes was not significantly different. For the environmental drivers of GS, oaks had about 10% lower stomatal sensitivity to VPD normalized by reference stomatal conductance compared with pines. Pines exhibited a significant positive relationship between shallow soil moisture and GS, but only GS in Q. velutina was positively related to soil moisture. In contrast, stomatal sensitivity to VPD was significantly related to solar radiation in all oak species but only pines at one site. Therefore, oaks rely more heavily on groundwater resources but have lower WUE, while pines have larger leaf areas and nitrogen acquisition but lower PNUE demonstrating a trade-off between using water and nitrogen efficiently in a resource-limited ecosystem.

Resource use and efficiency, and stomatal responses to environmental drivers of oak and pine species in an Atlantic Coastal Plain forest

PubMed Central

Renninger, Heidi J.; Carlo, Nicholas J.; Clark, Kenneth L.; Schäfer, Karina V. R.

2015-01-01

Pine-oak ecosystems are globally distributed even though differences in anatomy and leaf habit between many co-occurring oaks and pines suggest different strategies for resource use, efficiency and stomatal behavior. The New Jersey Pinelands contain sandy soils with low water- and nutrient-holding capacity providing an opportunity to examine trade-offs in resource uptake and efficiency. Therefore, we compared resource use in terms of transpiration rates and leaf nitrogen content and resource-use efficiency including water-use efficiency (WUE) via gas exchange and leaf carbon isotopes and photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency (PNUE) between oaks (Quercus alba, Q. prinus, Q. velutina) and pines (Pinus rigida, P. echinata). We also determined environmental drivers [vapor pressure deficit (VPD), soil moisture, solar radiation] of canopy stomatal conductance (GS) estimated via sap flow and stomatal sensitivity to light and soil moisture. Net assimilation rates were similar between genera, but oak leaves used about 10% more water and pine foliage contained about 20% more N per unit leaf area. Therefore, oaks exhibited greater PNUE while pines had higher WUE based on gas exchange, although WUE from carbon isotopes was not significantly different. For the environmental drivers of GS, oaks had about 10% lower stomatal sensitivity to VPD normalized by reference stomatal conductance compared with pines. Pines exhibited a significant positive relationship between shallow soil moisture and GS, but only GS in Q. velutina was positively related to soil moisture. In contrast, stomatal sensitivity to VPD was significantly related to solar radiation in all oak species but only pines at one site. Therefore, oaks rely more heavily on groundwater resources but have lower WUE, while pines have larger leaf areas and nitrogen acquisition but lower PNUE demonstrating a trade-off between using water and nitrogen efficiently in a resource-limited ecosystem. PMID:25999966

Systematic review of strategies to manage and allocate scarce resources during mass casualty events.

PubMed

Timbie, Justin W; Ringel, Jeanne S; Fox, D Steven; Pillemer, Francesca; Waxman, Daniel A; Moore, Melinda; Hansen, Cynthia K; Knebel, Ann R; Ricciardi, Richard; Kellermann, Arthur L

2013-06-01

Efficient management and allocation of scarce medical resources can improve outcomes for victims of mass casualty events. However, the effectiveness of specific strategies has never been systematically reviewed. We analyze published evidence on strategies to optimize the management and allocation of scarce resources across a wide range of mass casualty event contexts and study designs. Our literature search included MEDLINE, Scopus, EMBASE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Global Health, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, from 1990 through late 2011. We also searched the gray literature, using the New York Academy of Medicine's Grey Literature Report and key Web sites. We included both English- and foreign-language articles. We included studies that evaluated strategies used in actual mass casualty events or tested through drills, exercises, or computer simulations. We excluded studies that lacked a comparison group or did not report quantitative outcomes. Data extraction, quality assessment, and strength of evidence ratings were conducted by a single researcher and reviewed by a second; discrepancies were reconciled by the 2 reviewers. Because of heterogeneity in outcome measures, we qualitatively synthesized findings within categories of strategies. From 5,716 potentially relevant citations, 74 studies met inclusion criteria. Strategies included reducing demand for health care services (18 studies), optimizing use of existing resources (50), augmenting existing resources (5), implementing crisis standards of care (5), and multiple categories (4). The evidence was sufficient to form conclusions on 2 strategies, although the strength of evidence was rated as low. First, as a strategy to reduce demand for health care services, points of dispensing can be used to efficiently distribute biological countermeasures after a bioterrorism attack or influenza pandemic, and their organization influences speed of distribution. Second, as a strategy to optimize use of existing resources, commonly used field triage systems do not perform consistently during actual mass casualty events. The number of high-quality studies addressing other strategies was insufficient to support conclusions about their effectiveness because of differences in study context, comparison groups, and outcome measures. Our literature search may have missed key resource management and allocation strategies because of their extreme heterogeneity. Interrater reliability was not assessed for quality assessments or strength of evidence ratings. Publication bias is likely, given the large number of studies reporting positive findings. The current evidence base is inadequate to inform providers and policymakers about the most effective strategies for managing or allocating scarce resources during mass casualty events. Consensus on methodological standards that encompass a range of study designs is needed to guide future research and strengthen the evidence base. Evidentiary standards should be developed to promote consensus interpretations of the evidence supporting individual strategies. Copyright © 2013 American College of Emergency Physicians. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Are wildfire management resources in the United States efficiently allocated to protect resources at risk? A case study from Montana

Treesearch

Derek T. O' Donnell; Tyron J. Venna; David E. Calkin

2014-01-01

Federal wildfire management agencies in the United States are under substantial pressure to reduce and economically justify their expenditures. To support economically efficient management of wildfires, managers need better estimates of the resource benefits and avoided damage costs associated with alternative wildfire management strategies. This paper reports findings...

Energy Value Housing Award Guide: How to Build and Profit with Energy Efficiency in New Home Construction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sikora, J. L.

2001-06-01

As concern over the environment grows, builders have the potential to fulfill a market niche by building homes that use fewer resources and have lower environmental impact than conventional construction. Builders can increase their marketability and customer satisfaction and, at the same time, reduce the environmental impact of their homes. However, it takes dedication to build environmentally sound homes along with a solid marketing approach to ensure that customers recognize the added value of energy and resource efficiency. This guide is intended for builders seeking suggestions on how to improve energy and resource efficiency in their new homes. It ismore » a compilation of ideas and concepts for designing, building, and marketing energy- and resource-efficient homes based on the experience of recipients of the national Energy Value Housing Award (EVHA).« less

Overcoming the Law of the Hidden in Cyberinfrastructures.

PubMed

Bucksch, Alexander; Das, Abhiram; Schneider, Hannah; Merchant, Nirav; Weitz, Joshua S

2017-02-01

Cyberinfrastructure projects (CIPs) are complex, integrated systems that require interaction and organization amongst user, developer, hardware, technical infrastructure, and funding resources. Nevertheless, CIP usability, functionality, and growth do not scale with the sum of these resources. Instead, growth and efficient usage of CIPs require access to 'hidden' resources. These include technical resources within CIPs as well as social and functional interactions among stakeholders. We identify approaches to overcome resource limitations following the conceptual basis of Liebig's Law of the Minimum. In so doing, we recommend practical steps towards efficient and scaleable resource use, taking the iPlant/CyVerse CIP as an example. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improving Initiation and Tracking of Research Projects at an Academic Health Center: A Case Study.

PubMed

Schmidt, Susanne; Goros, Martin; Parsons, Helen M; Saygin, Can; Wan, Hung-Da; Shireman, Paula K; Gelfond, Jonathan A L

2017-09-01

Research service cores at academic health centers are important in driving translational advancements. Specifically, biostatistics and research design units provide services and training in data analytics, biostatistics, and study design. However, the increasing demand and complexity of assigning appropriate personnel to time-sensitive projects strains existing resources, potentially decreasing productivity and increasing costs. Improving processes for project initiation, assigning appropriate personnel, and tracking time-sensitive projects can eliminate bottlenecks and utilize resources more efficiently. In this case study, we describe our application of lean six sigma principles to our biostatistics unit to establish a systematic continual process improvement cycle for intake, allocation, and tracking of research design and data analysis projects. The define, measure, analyze, improve, and control methodology was used to guide the process improvement. Our goal was to assess and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operations by objectively measuring outcomes, automating processes, and reducing bottlenecks. As a result, we developed a web-based dashboard application to capture, track, categorize, streamline, and automate project flow. Our workflow system resulted in improved transparency, efficiency, and workload allocation. Using the dashboard application, we reduced the average study intake time from 18 to 6 days, a 66.7% reduction over 12 months (January to December 2015).

Drainage estimation to aquifer and water use irrigation efficiency in semi-arid zone for a long period of time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiménez-Martínez, J.; Molinero-Huguet, J.; Candela, L.

2009-04-01

Water requirements for different crop types according to soil type and climate conditions play not only an important role in agricultural efficiency production, though also for water resources management and control of pollutants in drainage water. The key issue to attain these objectives is the irrigation efficiency. Application of computer codes for irrigation simulation constitutes a fast and inexpensive approach to study optimal agricultural management practices. To simulate daily water balance in the soil, vadose zone and aquifer the VisualBALAN V. 2.0 code was applied to an experimental area under irrigation characterized by its aridity. The test was carried out in three experimental plots for annual row crops (lettuce and melon), perennial vegetables (artichoke), and fruit trees (citrus) under common agricultural practices in open air for October 1999-September 2008. Drip irrigation was applied to crops production due to the scarcity of water resources and the need for water conservation. Water level change was monitored in the top unconfined aquifer for each experimental plot. Results of water balance modelling show a good agreement between observed and estimated water level values. For the study period, mean drainage obtained values were 343 mm, 261 mm and 205 mm for lettuce and melon, artichoke and citrus respectively. Assessment of water use efficiency was based on the IE indicator proposed by the ASCE Task Committee. For the modelled period, water use efficiency was estimated as 73, 71 and 78 % of the applied dose (irrigation + precipitation) for lettuce and melon, artichoke and citrus, respectively.

[Analysis of the workload and the use of the nursing resources in an intensive care unit].

PubMed

Valls-Matarín, J; Salamero-Amorós, M; Roldán-Gil, C

2015-01-01

To evaluate and assess the nursing workload (NW) scales by means of three scales and to determine the theoretical and real nurse/patient relationship in a polyvalent ICU. Cross-sectional descriptive study between July 2012 and June 2013 in patients over 18 years old, for which 3 nurses quantified, in randomized days, the NW by the Nursing Activities Score (NAS), Nine Equivalents Manpower Score (NEMS) and Valoración de Cargas de Trabajo y Tiempos de Enfermería (VACTE). Efficiency parameters of nursing resources were calculated: "work utilization ratio" (WUR), "level of care" operative (LOCop) and planned (LOCp). Data on demographics, length of stay and number of nurses were collected. 720 records were collected. The mean age was 64 (13.6) years. 73% were male and the median of length of stay was 3 (1-12) days. 60% were admitted for medical causes. The average total score was: NAS: 696.8 (111.6), NEMS: 311.8 (55.3) and VACTE: 4,978 (897.7). The required number of nurses according to NAS was 7 and 6,7 according to NEMS and VACTE. The actual average was 5.5. On all 3 scales the WUR was >1 and LOCop was 1.6 pacients/nurse. The LOCp was 2 patients/nurse. Assessing NW allows to know the reality of each unit. According to the scales and efficiency parameters of the nursing resources used, there is a shortage of nurses in relation to the work generated. NAS reflects more parameters of NW. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier España, S.L.U. y SEEIUC. All rights reserved.

Coordinating Demand-Side Efficiency Evaluation, Measurement and Verification Among Western States: Options for Documenting Energy and Non-Energy Impacts for the Power Sector

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schiller, Steven R.; Schwartz, Lisa C.

Demand-side energy efficiency (efficiency) represents a low-cost opportunity to reduce electricity consumption and demand and provide a wide range of non-energy benefits, including avoiding air pollution. Efficiency-related energy and non-energy impacts are determined and documented by implementing evaluation, measurement and verification (EM&V) systems. This technical brief describes efficiency EM&V coordination strategies that Western states can consider taking on together, outlines EM&V-related products that might be appropriate for multistate coordination, and identifies some implications of coordination. Coordinating efficiency EM&V activities can save both time and costs for state agencies and stakeholders engaged in efficiency activities and can be particularly beneficial formore » multiple states served by the same utility. First, the brief summarizes basic information on efficiency, its myriad potential benefits and EM&V for assessing those benefits. Second, the brief introduces the concept of multistate EM&V coordination in the context of assessing such benefits, including achievement of state and federal goals to reduce air pollutants.1 Next, the brief presents three coordination strategy options for efficiency EM&V: information clearinghouse/exchange, EM&V product development, and a regional energy efficiency tracking system platform. The brief then describes five regional EM&V products that could be developed on a multistate basis: EM&V reporting formats, database of consistent deemed electricity savings values, glossary of definitions and concepts, efficiency EM&V methodologies, and EM&V professional standards or accreditation processes. Finally, the brief discusses options for next steps that Western states can take to consider multistate coordination on efficiency EM&V. Appendices provide background information on efficiency and EM&V, as well as definitions and suggested resources on the covered topics. This brief is intended to inform state public utility commissions, boards for public and consumer-owned utilities, state energy offices and air agencies, and other organizations involved in discussions about the use of efficiency EM&V.« less

Preference and Priority in Federal Funding: Aligning Federal Resources to Maximize Program Investment Efficiency and Impacts in Communities

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This page contains the document, Preference and Priority in Federal Funding: Aligning Federal Resources to Maximize Program Investment Efficiency and Impacts in Communities - Lessons from EPA’s Brownfields Program.

Coupling Radar Rainfall to Hydrological Models for Water Abstraction Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asfaw, Alemayehu; Shucksmith, James; Smith, Andrea; MacDonald, Ken

2015-04-01

The impacts of climate change and growing water use are likely to put considerable pressure on water resources and the environment. In the UK, a reform to surface water abstraction policy has recently been proposed which aims to increase the efficiency of using available water resources whilst minimising impacts on the aquatic environment. Key aspects to this reform include the consideration of dynamic rather than static abstraction licensing as well as introducing water trading concepts. Dynamic licensing will permit varying levels of abstraction dependent on environmental conditions (i.e. river flow and quality). The practical implementation of an effective dynamic abstraction strategy requires suitable flow forecasting techniques to inform abstraction asset management. Potentially the predicted availability of water resources within a catchment can be coupled to predicted demand and current storage to inform a cost effective water resource management strategy which minimises environmental impacts. The aim of this work is to use a historical analysis of UK case study catchment to compare potential water resource availability using modelled dynamic abstraction scenario informed by a flow forecasting model, against observed abstraction under a conventional abstraction regime. The work also demonstrates the impacts of modelling uncertainties on the accuracy of predicted water availability over range of forecast lead times. The study utilised a conceptual rainfall-runoff model PDM - Probability-Distributed Model developed by Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - set up in the Dove River catchment (UK) using 1km2 resolution radar rainfall as inputs and 15 min resolution gauged flow data for calibration and validation. Data assimilation procedures are implemented to improve flow predictions using observed flow data. Uncertainties in the radar rainfall data used in the model are quantified using artificial statistical error model described by Gaussian distribution and propagated through the model to assess its influence on the forecasted flow uncertainty. Furthermore, the effects of uncertainties at different forecast lead times on potential abstraction strategies are assessed. The results show that over a 10 year period, an average of approximately 70 ML/d of potential water is missed in the study catchment under a convention abstraction regime. This indicates a considerable potential for the use of flow forecasting models to effectively implement advanced abstraction management and more efficiently utilize available water resources in the study catchment.

Innovative production technology ethanol from sweet sorghum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kashapov, N. F.; Nafikov, M. M.; Gazetdinov, M. X.; Nafikova, M. M.; Nigmatzyanov, A. R.

2016-06-01

The paper considers the technological aspects of production of ethanol from nontraditional for Russian Federation crops - sweet sorghum. Presents the technological scheme of alcohol production and fuel pellets from sweet sorghum. Special attention is paid to assessing the efficiency of alcohol production from sweet sorghum. The described advantage of sugar content in stem juice of sweet sorghum compared with other raw materials. Allegedly, the use of the technology for producing alcohol from sweet sorghum allows to save resources.

Identifying improvement potentials in cement production with life cycle assessment.

PubMed

Boesch, Michael Elias; Hellweg, Stefanie

2010-12-01

Cement production is an environmentally relevant process responsible for 5% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and 7% of industrial fuel use. In this study, life cycle assessment is used to evaluate improvement potentials in the cement production process in Europe and the USA. With a current fuel substitution rate of 18% in Europe and 11% in the USA, both regions have a substantial potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save virgin resources by further increasing the coprocessing of waste fuels. Upgrading production technology would be particularly effective in the USA where many kiln systems with very low energy efficiency are still in operation. Using best available technology and a thermal substitution rate of 50% for fuels, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 9% for Europe and 18% for the USA per tonne of cement. Since clinker production is the dominant pollution producing step in cement production, the substitution of clinker with mineral components such as ground granulated blast furnace slag or fly ash is an efficient measure to reduce the environmental impact. Blended cements exhibit substantially lower environmental footprints than Portland cement, even if the substitutes feature lower grindability and require additional drying and large transport distances. The highest savings in CO(2) emissions and resource consumption are achieved with a combination of measures in clinker production and cement blending.

Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers for Jasminum sambac (Oleaceae) using Illumina shotgun sequencing.

PubMed

Li, Yong; Zhang, Weirui

2015-10-01

Microsatellite markers of Jasminum sambac (Oleaceae) were isolated to investigate wild germplasm resources and provide markers for breeding. Illumina sequencing was used to isolate microsatellite markers from the transcriptome of J. sambac. A total of 1322 microsatellites were identified from 49,772 assembled unigenes. One hundred primer pairs were randomly selected to verify primer amplification efficiency. Out of these tested primer pairs, 31 were successfully amplified: 18 primer pairs yielded a single allele, seven exhibited fixed heterozygosity with two alleles, and only six displayed polymorphisms. This study obtained the first set of microsatellite markers for J. sambac, which will be helpful for the assessment of wild germplasm resources and the development of molecular marker-assisted breeding.

The conservation nexus: valuing interdependent water and energy savings in Arizona.

PubMed

Bartos, Matthew D; Chester, Mikhail V

2014-02-18

Water and energy resources are intrinsically linked, yet they are managed separately--even in the water-scarce American southwest. This study develops a spatially explicit model of water-energy interdependencies in Arizona and assesses the potential for cobeneficial conservation programs. The interdependent benefits of investments in eight conservation strategies are assessed within the context of legislated renewable energy portfolio and energy efficiency standards. The cobenefits of conservation are found to be significant. Water conservation policies have the potential to reduce statewide electricity demand by 0.82-3.1%, satisfying 4.1-16% of the state's mandated energy-efficiency standard. Adoption of energy-efficiency measures and renewable generation portfolios can reduce nonagricultural water demand by 1.9-15%. These conservation cobenefits are typically not included in conservation plans or benefit-cost analyses. Many cobenefits offer negative costs of saved water and energy, indicating that these measures provide water and energy savings at no net cost. Because ranges of costs and savings for water-energy conservation measures are somewhat uncertain, future studies should investigate the cobenefits of individual conservation strategies in detail. Although this study focuses on Arizona, the analysis can be extended elsewhere as renewable portfolio and energy efficiency standards become more common nationally and internationally.

Indirect water management through Life Cycle Assessment: Fostering sustainable production in developing countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pfister, S.; Bayer, P.; Koehler, A.; Hellweg, S.

2009-04-01

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) represents a methodological framework for analyzing the total environmental impact of any product or service of our daily life. After tracking all associated emissions and the consumption of resources, this impact is expressed with respect to a few common impact categories. These are supposed to reflect major societal and environmental priorities. However, despite their central role in environmental processes, to date hydrological as well as hydrogeological aspects are only rarely considered in LCA. Compared with standard impact categories within LCA, water is special. In contrast to other abiotic resources such as crude oil, it can be replenished. Total freshwater resources are immense, but not evenly distributed and often scarce in regions of high demand. Consequently, threads to natural water bodies have immense spatial dependency. Setting up functional relationships in order to derive a generally valid and practicable evaluation is tedious due to the complex, insufficiently understood, and uncertain natural processes involved. LCA that includes the environmental effects of water consumption means global indirect water resource management. It supports goal-directed consumer behaviour that aims to reduce pressure on natural water systems. By developing a hydrologically-based assessment of potential impacts from human interaction with natural water bodies, "greener" products can be prioritised. More sustainable and environmentally friendly water management is the result. The proposed contribution presents an operational assessment method of global surface water consumption for impacts on human health and ecosystem quality within a LCA framework. A major focus is the issue of how such global assessment helps to quantify potential impacts from water-intensive production in developing countries, where the means for proper water management are often limited. We depict a compensation scheme for impacts related to water consumption that allows agriculture-dependent regions to produce and export crops while customers can compensate the related environmental impacts and/or improving the integrated water resource management by paying a premium. This allows for efficient international food production, strengthening sustainability regarding social, environmental and economic issues related to water and trade.

Resource use and efficiency, and stomatal responses to environmental drivers of oak and pine species in an Atlantic Coastal Plain forest

Treesearch

Heidi J. Renninger; Nicholas J. Carlo; Kenneth L. Clark; Karina V.R. Schäfer

2015-01-01

Pine-oak ecosystems are globally distributed even though differences in anatomy and leaf habit between many co-occurring oaks and pines suggest different strategies for resource use, efficiency and stomatal behavior. The New Jersey Pinelands contain sandy soils with low water- and nutrient-holding capacity providing an opportunity to examine trade-offs in resource...

Energy-aware Thread and Data Management in Heterogeneous Multi-core, Multi-memory Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Su, Chun-Yi

By 2004, microprocessor design focused on multicore scaling—increasing the number of cores per die in each generation—as the primary strategy for improving performance. These multicore processors typically equip multiple memory subsystems to improve data throughput. In addition, these systems employ heterogeneous processors such as GPUs and heterogeneous memories like non-volatile memory to improve performance, capacity, and energy efficiency. With the increasing volume of hardware resources and system complexity caused by heterogeneity, future systems will require intelligent ways to manage hardware resources. Early research to improve performance and energy efficiency on heterogeneous, multi-core, multi-memory systems focused on tuning a single primitivemore » or at best a few primitives in the systems. The key limitation of past efforts is their lack of a holistic approach to resource management that balances the tradeoff between performance and energy consumption. In addition, the shift from simple, homogeneous systems to these heterogeneous, multicore, multi-memory systems requires in-depth understanding of efficient resource management for scalable execution, including new models that capture the interchange between performance and energy, smarter resource management strategies, and novel low-level performance/energy tuning primitives and runtime systems. Tuning an application to control available resources efficiently has become a daunting challenge; managing resources in automation is still a dark art since the tradeoffs among programming, energy, and performance remain insufficiently understood. In this dissertation, I have developed theories, models, and resource management techniques to enable energy-efficient execution of parallel applications through thread and data management in these heterogeneous multi-core, multi-memory systems. I study the effect of dynamic concurrent throttling on the performance and energy of multi-core, non-uniform memory access (NUMA) systems. I use critical path analysis to quantify memory contention in the NUMA memory system and determine thread mappings. In addition, I implement a runtime system that combines concurrent throttling and a novel thread mapping algorithm to manage thread resources and improve energy efficient execution in multi-core, NUMA systems.« less

Exploring the effectiveness of sustainable water management structures in the Upper Pungwe river basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nyikadzino, B.; Chibisa, P.; Makurira, H.

The study endeavoured to assess the effectiveness of stakeholder structures and their participation in sustainable water resources management in the Upper Pungwe river basin shared by Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The study sought to assess the level and effectiveness of stakeholder, gender and the vulnerable groups representation in sustainable water resources management as well as the whole stakeholder participation process. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods for data collection and analysis. Sampling data was obtained from 15 stakeholder representatives (councillors) constituting Pungwe Subcatchment Council, 30 water users ranging from small scale to large scale users and professionals in water resources management. Two different questionnaires and three structured interviews were administered during the study. Water permit database, financial reports and other source documents were also analysed. The study established that the sustainability and effectiveness of stakeholder structures and their participation in water resources management is being compromised by lack of stakeholder awareness. Water utilisation is very high in the subcatchment (99%) while women participation is still low (20%). The study therefore recommends the use of quotas for the participation of women in stakeholder structures. Stakeholder structures are encouraged to intensify stakeholder awareness on issues of river protection, efficient water use and pollution control. Further research is recommended to be carried out on the effectiveness of stakeholder structures in combating water pollution and enhancing river protection.

Tackling regional health inequalities in france by resource allocation : a case for complementary instrumental and process-based approaches?

PubMed

Bellanger, Martine M; Jourdain, Alain

2004-01-01

This article aims to evaluate the results of two different approaches underlying the attempts to reduce health inequalities in France. In the 'instrumental' approach, resource allocation is based on an indicator to assess the well-being or the quality of life associated with healthcare provision, the argument being that additional resources would respond to needs that could then be treated quickly and efficiently. This governs the distribution of regional hospital budgets. In the second approach, health professionals and users in a given region are involved in a consensus process to define those priorities to be included in programme formulation. This 'procedural' approach is employed in the case of the regional health programmes. In this second approach, the evaluation of the results runs parallel with an analysis of the process using Rawlsian principles, whereas the first approach is based on the classical economic model.At this stage, a pragmatic analysis based on both the comparison of regional hospital budgets during the period 1992-2003 (calculated using a 'RAWP [resource allocation working party]-like' formula) and the evolution of regional health policies through the evaluation of programmes for the prevention of suicide, alcohol-related diseases and cancers provides a partial assessment of the impact of the two types of approaches, the second having a greater effect on the reduction of regional inequalities.

The movement of a forager: strategies for the efficient use of resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kazimierski, Laila D.; Abramson, Guillermo; Kuperman, Marcelo N.

2016-10-01

We study a simple model of a foraging animal that modifies the substrate on which it moves. This substrate provides its only resource, and the forager manages it by taking a limited portion at each visited site. The resource recovers its value after the visit following a relaxation law. We study different scenarios to analyze the efficiency of the managing strategy, corresponding to control the bite size. We observe the non trivial emergence of a home range, that is visited in a periodic way. The duration of the corresponding cycles and the transient until it emerges is affected by the bite size. Our results show that the most efficient use of the resource, measured as the balance between gathering and traveled distance, corresponds to foragers that take larger portions but without exhausting the resource. We also analyze the use of space determining the number of attractors of the dynamics, and we observe that it depends on the bite size and the recovery time of the resource.

The German and Japanese health care systems: an international comparison using an input-output model.

PubMed

Rump, A; Schöffski, O

2016-12-01

The German and Japanese health care systems have common roots, but have evolved differently. Whereas the German system is often considered as expensive and poorly efficient, people in Japan are viewed as healthy and health care as comparatively cheap. In this study, we compared the quality, the effectiveness and efficiency of the German and Japanese health care systems. This study includes comparative health care data analysis. The quality and effectiveness of the German and Japanese health care systems were analyzed using an input-output model including 12 countries based on health indicators published by the OECD. Besides the invested resources, a risk-related input dimension was used for risk adjustment. The efficiency of the systems was assessed by relating the average output to the health expenses per capita. Health risks seem qualitatively different in Germany and Japan, but at the aggregate level, lifestyle does not seem to be an outstanding explanatory factor for health outcome differences between both countries. For investments in health resources, Germany is in a top position, whereas in the international comparison, the outcome is rather poor. The resources invested in Japan are also high, but slightly less than in Germany, whereas on average, the outcome is better. However, in the international comparison, resources as well as results in Japan show a very high variability. Relating the average output to the health expenses per capita indicates that on the average, the health care system in Japan is more efficient than in Germany. Germany and Japan have a quality problem with their health care systems. In Germany there is a transmission failure from structural to outcome quality that might be related to coordination problems between the outpatient and inpatient sector. Japan shows an unbalanced system that may be suspected to have a quality problem as a whole. As the development of the remuneration system including quality requirements is under the direct responsibility and guidance of the Ministry of Health in Japan, the issue might however be more easily solved in Japan than in Germany. Although on average, health care seems more efficient in Japan than in Germany, taking into account health as well as long-term care expenses and uncertainties related to exchange rate adjustments, the higher efficiency of the Japanese system becomes questionable. Copyright © 2016 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessment of the effectiveness of supply-side cost-containment measures

PubMed Central

Garrison, Louis P.

1992-01-01

This article assesses the arguments and evidence concerning the likely effectiveness of four supply-side cost-containment measures. The health planning efforts of the 1970s, particularly certificate-of-need regulations, had very limited success in containing costs. The new and related tools of technology assessment and practice guidelines hold some promise for refining benefit packages, but they are inadequate for micromanaging complex medical practices. Payment policies, such as hospital ratesetting, have enjoyed some success in limiting hospital cost growth but are less effective at controlling total costs. None of these measures alone is likely to address fully the fundamental issues of equity and efficiency in health care resource allocation that underlie the problem of rising costs. PMID:25372721

ISS Payload Operations: The Need for and Benefit of Responsive Planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nahay, Ed; Boster, Mandee

2000-01-01

International Space Station (ISS) payload operations are controlled through implementation of a payload operations plan. This plan, which represents the defined approach to payload operations in general, can vary in terms of level of definition. The detailed plan provides the specific sequence and timing of each component of a payload's operations. Such an approach to planning was implemented in the Spacelab program. The responsive plan provides a flexible approach to payload operations through generalization. A responsive approach to planning was implemented in the NASA/Mir Phase 1 program, and was identified as a need during the Skylab program. The current approach to ISS payload operations planning and control tends toward detailed planning, rather than responsive planning. The use of detailed plans provides for the efficient use of limited resources onboard the ISS. It restricts flexibility in payload operations, which is inconsistent with the dynamic nature of the ISS science program, and it restricts crew desires for flexibility and autonomy. Also, detailed planning is manpower intensive. The development and implementation of a responsive plan provides for a more dynamic, more accommodating, and less manpower intensive approach to planning. The science program becomes more dynamic and responsive as the plan provides flexibility to accommodate real-time science accomplishments. Communications limitations and the crew desire for flexibility and autonomy in plan implementation are readily accommodated with responsive planning. Manpower efficiencies are accomplished through a reduction in requirements collection and coordination, plan development, and maintenance. Through examples and assessments, this paper identifies the need to transition from detailed to responsive plans for ISS payload operations. Examples depict specific characteristics of the plans. Assessments identify the following: the means by which responsive plans accommodate the dynamic nature of science programs and the crew desire for flexibility; the means by which responsive plans readily accommodate ISS communications constraints; manpower efficiencies to be achieved through use of responsive plans; and the implications of responsive planning relative to resource utilization efficiency.

Performance evaluation of a health insurance in Nigeria using optimal resource use: health care providers perspectives

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Performance measures are often neglected during the transition period of national health insurance scheme implementation in many low and middle income countries. These measurements evaluate the extent to which various aspects of the schemes meet their key objectives. This study assesses the implementation of a health insurance scheme using optimal resource use domains and examines possible factors that influence each domain, according to providers’ perspectives. Methods A retrospective, cross-sectional survey was done between August and December 2010 in Kaduna state, and 466 health care provider personnel were interviewed. Optimal-resource-use was defined in four domains: provider payment mechanism (capitation and fee-for-service payment methods), benefit package, administrative efficiency, and active monitoring mechanism. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify provider factors that may influence each domain. Results In the provider payment mechanism domain, capitation payment method (95%) performed better than fee-for-service payment method (62%). Benefit package domain performed strongly (97%), while active monitoring mechanism performed weakly (37%). In the administrative efficiency domain, both promptness of referral system (80%) and prompt arrival of funds (93%) performed well. At the individual level, providers with fewer enrolees encountered difficulties with reimbursement. Other factors significantly influenced each of the optimal-resource-use domains. Conclusions Fee-for-service payment method and claims review, in the provider payment and active monitoring mechanisms, respectively, performed weakly according to the providers’ (at individual-level) perspectives. A short-fall on the supply-side of health insurance could lead to a direct or indirect adverse effect on the demand-side of the scheme. Capitation payment per enrolees should be revised to conform to economic circumstances. Performance indicators and providers’ characteristics and experiences associated with resource use can assist policy makers to monitor and evaluate health insurance implementation. PMID:24628889

Ecological interactions and the fitness effect of water-use efficiency: Competition and drought alter the impact of natural MPK12 alleles in Arabidopsis.

PubMed

Campitelli, Brandon E; Des Marais, David L; Juenger, Thomas E

2016-04-01

The presence of substantial genetic variation for water-use efficiency (WUE) suggests that natural selection plays a role in maintaining alleles that affect WUE. Soil water deficit can reduce plant survival, and is likely to impose selection to increase WUE, whereas competition for resources may select for decreased WUE to ensure water acquisition. We tested the fitness consequences of natural allelic variation in a single gene (MPK12) that influences WUE in Arabidopsis, using transgenic lines contrasting in MPK12 alleles, under four treatments; drought/competition, drought/no competition, well-watered/competition, well-watered/no competition. Results revealed an allele × environment interaction: Low WUE plants performed better in competition, resulting from increased resource consumption. Contrastingly, high WUE individuals performed better in no competition, irrespective of water availability, presumably from enhanced water conservation and nitrogen acquisition. Our findings suggest that selection can influence MPK12 evolution, and represents the first assessment of plant fitness resulting from natural allelic variation at a single locus affecting WUE. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

The California Law Enforcement Community’s Intelligence-Led Policing Capacity

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-12-01

intelligence product used for sound decision making , strategic targeting, and more efficient resource allocation, whereas lack of clarity and the...providing law enforcement executives with actionable intelligence products for sound decision making , strategic targeting, and efficient resource

Comprehensive efficiency analysis of supercomputer resource usage based on system monitoring data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mamaeva, A. A.; Shaykhislamov, D. I.; Voevodin, Vad V.; Zhumatiy, S. A.

2018-03-01

One of the main problems of modern supercomputers is the low efficiency of their usage, which leads to the significant idle time of computational resources, and, in turn, to the decrease in speed of scientific research. This paper presents three approaches to study the efficiency of supercomputer resource usage based on monitoring data analysis. The first approach performs an analysis of computing resource utilization statistics, which allows to identify different typical classes of programs, to explore the structure of the supercomputer job flow and to track overall trends in the supercomputer behavior. The second approach is aimed specifically at analyzing off-the-shelf software packages and libraries installed on the supercomputer, since efficiency of their usage is becoming an increasingly important factor for the efficient functioning of the entire supercomputer. Within the third approach, abnormal jobs – jobs with abnormally inefficient behavior that differs significantly from the standard behavior of the overall supercomputer job flow – are being detected. For each approach, the results obtained in practice in the Supercomputer Center of Moscow State University are demonstrated.

Flock Foraging Efficiency in Relation to Food Sensing Ability and Distribution: a Simulation Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Sang-Hee

2013-08-01

Flocking may be an advantageous strategy for acquiring food resources. The degree of advantage is related to two factors: the ability of flock members to detect food resources and patterns of food distribution in the environment. To understand foraging efficiency as a function of these factors, I constructed a two-dimensional (2D) flocking model incorporating the two factors. At the start of the simulation, food particles were heterogeneously distributed. The heterogeneity, H, was characterized as a value ranging from 0.0 to 1.0. For each flock member, food sensing ability was defined by two variables: sensing distance, R and sensing angle, θ. Foraging efficiency of a flock was defined as the time, τ, required for a flock to consume all the available food resources. Simulation results showed that flock foraging is most efficient when individuals had an intermediate sensing ability (R = 60), but decreased for low (R < 60) and high (R > 60) sensing ability. When R > 60, patterns in foraging efficiency with increasing sensing distance and food resource aggregation were less consistent. This inconsistency was due to instability of the flock and a higher rate of individuals failing to capture target food resources. In addition, I briefly discuss the benefits obtained by foraging in flocks from an evolutionary perspective.

Allocative and implementation efficiency in HIV prevention and treatment for people who inject drugs.

PubMed

Benedikt, Clemens; Kelly, Sherrie L; Wilson, David; Wilson, David P

2016-12-01

Estimated global new HIV infections among people who inject drugs (PWID) remained stable over the 2010-2015 period and the target of a 50% reduction over this period was missed. To achieve the 2020 UNAIDS target of reducing adult HIV infections by 75% compared to 2010, accelerated action in scaling up HIV programs for PWID is required. In a context of diminishing external support to HIV programs in countries where most HIV-affected PWID live, it is essential that available resources are allocated and used as efficiently as possible. Allocative and implementation efficiency analysis methods were applied. Optima, a dynamic, population-based HIV model with an integrated program and economic analysis framework was applied in eight countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA). Mathematical analyses established optimized allocations of resources. An implementation efficiency analysis focused on examining technical efficiency, unit costs, and heterogeneity of service delivery models and practices. Findings from the latest reported data revealed that countries allocated between 4% (Bulgaria) and 40% (Georgia) of total HIV resources to programs targeting PWID - with a median of 13% for the eight countries. When distributing the same amount of HIV funding optimally, between 9% and 25% of available HIV resources would be allocated to PWID programs with a median allocation of 16% and, in addition, antiretroviral therapy would be scaled up including for PWID. As a result of optimized allocations, new HIV infections are projected to decline by 3-28% and AIDS-related deaths by 7-53% in the eight countries. Implementation efficiencies identified involve potential reductions in drug procurement costs, service delivery models, and practices and scale of service delivery influencing cost and outcome. A high level of implementation efficiency was associated with high volumes of PWID clients accessing a drug harm reduction facility. A combination of optimized allocation of resources, improved implementation efficiency and increased investment of non-HIV resources is required to enhance coverage and improve outcomes of programs for PWID. Increasing efficiency of HIV programs for PWID is a key step towards avoiding implicit rationing and ensuring transparent allocation of resources where and how they would have the largest impact on the health of PWID, and thereby ensuring that funding spent on PWID becomes a global best buy in public health. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The natural resources inventory system ASVT project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Joyce, A. T.

1979-01-01

The hardware/software and the associated procedures for a natural resource inventory and information system based on the use of LANDSAT-acquired multispectral scanner digital data is described. The system is designed to derive land cover/vegetation information from LANDSAT data and geographically reference this information for the production of various types of maps and for the compilation of acreage by land cover/vegetation category. The system also provides for data base building so that the LANDSAT-derived information can be related to information digitized from other sources (e.g., soils maps) in a geographic context in order to address specific applications. These applications include agricultural crop production estimation, erosion hazard-reforestation need assessment, whitetail deer habitat assessment, and site selection. The system is tested in demonstration areas located in the state of Mississippi, and the results of these application demonstrations are presented. A cost-efficiency comparison of producing land cover/vegetation maps and statistics with this system versus the use of small-scale aerial photography is made.

Analysis on the Efficiency of Science and Technology Resources Utilization in the Provinces along the Belt and Road

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiong, Wu; Yali, Wang

2018-05-01

With the proposal of the "Belt and Road Initiatives for Science and Technology Innovation" in May 2017, science and technology resources show great value in many areas along the Belt and Road. It is necessary to correctly describe the status and analyze utilization efficiency of science and technology resources in a region, then scientific suggestions for improvement can be put forward.This article choose Guangdong province and Jiangsu province as comparative objects,which are important areas along the Belt and Road.After collecting data from 2002 to 2013, this paper analyze the efficiency of input and output in sci-tech in these two provinces by using Data Envelopment Analysis. Problems in utilization of science and technology resources and suggestions are put forward in this paper. This article aims to offer great reference for improving the utilization of science and technology resources along the Belt and Road.

Using dental care resources optimally: quality-efficiency trade-offs in a competitive private market.

PubMed

Prasad, Banuru Muralidhara; Varatharajan, D

2011-01-01

Modern lifestyle changes led to increased dental care needs in India. Consequently, there has been a sharp rise in dentist numbers. Karnataka state alone produces 2,500 dentists annually, who are engaged in the non-government sector owing to inadequate public sector opportunities. This article aims to assess Karnataka private dental clinic quality and efficiency. Dentists were interviewed using a close-ended, structured interview schedule and their clinics were assessed using a checklist adopted from guidelines for providing machinery and equipment under the National Oral Health Care Programme (NOHCP). Dental "hotel" and clinical quality were scored based on this checklist. Clinical quality was "excellent" in 12 per cent of clinics and poor in 49 per cent. Clinics with better infrastructure charged higher price (p < 0.05). Multi-chair clinics charging fixed rates were high (81 per cent). According to 59.5 per cent of dentists, competition did not improve quality while 27 per cent felt that competition increased price, not quality. About 30.9 per cent of the poor quality clinics, 41 per cent average quality clinics and 26 per cent good quality clinics were technically efficient. The multi chair clinics offered better quality at higher prices and single chair clinics provided poorer quality at lower prices. In other words, they had a sub-optimal price-quality mix. Therefore, there is a need to regulate price and quality in all clinics to arrive at an optimal price-quality mix so that clients are not overburdened financially even while receiving good quality dental care. The article advocates that resources are used optimally as a way to achieve value for money and to achieve break-even points thereby providing quality care in a competitive market. Factors that influence dental practitioner behaviour are evaluated.

Carbon and nutrient use efficiencies optimally balance stoichiometric imbalances

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manzoni, Stefano; Čapek, Petr; Lindahl, Björn; Mooshammer, Maria; Richter, Andreas; Šantrůčková, Hana

2016-04-01

Decomposer organisms face large stoichiometric imbalances because their food is generally poor in nutrients compared to the decomposer cellular composition. The presence of excess carbon (C) requires adaptations to utilize nutrients effectively while disposing of or investing excess C. As food composition changes, these adaptations lead to variable C- and nutrient-use efficiencies (defined as the ratios of C and nutrients used for growth over the amounts consumed). For organisms to be ecologically competitive, these changes in efficiencies with resource stoichiometry have to balance advantages and disadvantages in an optimal way. We hypothesize that efficiencies are varied so that community growth rate is optimized along stoichiometric gradients of their resources. Building from previous theories, we predict that maximum growth is achieved when C and nutrients are co-limiting, so that the maximum C-use efficiency is reached, and nutrient release is minimized. This optimality principle is expected to be applicable across terrestrial-aquatic borders, to various elements, and at different trophic levels. While the growth rate maximization hypothesis has been evaluated for consumers and predators, in this contribution we test it for terrestrial and aquatic decomposers degrading resources across wide stoichiometry gradients. The optimality hypothesis predicts constant efficiencies at low substrate C:N and C:P, whereas above a stoichiometric threshold, C-use efficiency declines and nitrogen- and phosphorus-use efficiencies increase up to one. Thus, high resource C:N and C:P lead to low C-use efficiency, but effective retention of nitrogen and phosphorus. Predictions are broadly consistent with efficiency trends in decomposer communities across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Explaining growth of individual trees: Light interception and efficiency of light use by Eucalyptus at four sites in Brazil

Treesearch

Dan Binkley; Jose Luiz Stape; William L. Bauerle; Michael G. Ryan

2010-01-01

The growth of wood in trees and forests depends on the acquisition of resources (light, water, and nutrients), the efficiency of using resources for photosynthesis, and subsequent partitioning to woody tissues. Patterns of efficiency over time for individual trees, or between trees at one time, result from changes in rates photosynthesis and shifts in...

Cross-Jurisdictional Resource Sharing in Changing Public Health Landscape: Contributory Factors and Theoretical Explanations.

PubMed

Shah, Gulzar H; Badana, Adrian N S; Robb, Claire; Livingood, William C

2016-01-01

Local health departments (LHDs) are striving to meet public health needs within their jurisdictions, amidst fiscal restraints and complex dynamic environment. Resource sharing across jurisdictions is a critical opportunity for LHDs to continue to enhance effectiveness and increase efficiency. This research examines the extent of cross-jurisdictional resource sharing among LHDs, the programmatic areas and organizational functions for which LHDs share resources, and LHD characteristics associated with resource sharing. Data from the National Association of County & City Health Officials' 2013 National Profile of LHDs were used. Descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression were performed for the 5 implementation-oriented outcome variables of interest, with 3 levels of implementation. More than 54% of LHDs shared resources such as funding, staff, or equipment with 1 or more other LHDs on a continuous, recurring basis. Results from the multinomial regression analysis indicate that economies of scale (population size and metropolitan status) had significant positive influences (at P ≤ .05) on resource sharing. Engagement in accreditation, community health assessment, community health improvement planning, quality improvement, and use of the Community Guide were associated with lower levels of engagement in resource sharing. Doctoral degree of the top executive and having 1 or more local boards of health carried a positive influence on resource sharing. Cross-jurisdictional resource sharing is a viable and commonly used process to overcome the challenges of new and emerging public health problems within the constraints of restricted budgets. LHDs, particularly smaller LHDs with limited resources, should consider increased resource sharing to address emerging challenges.

Generalized DSS shell for developing simulation and optimization hydro-economic models of complex water resources systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pulido-Velazquez, Manuel; Lopez-Nicolas, Antonio; Harou, Julien J.; Andreu, Joaquin

2013-04-01

Hydrologic-economic models allow integrated analysis of water supply, demand and infrastructure management at the river basin scale. These models simultaneously analyze engineering, hydrology and economic aspects of water resources management. Two new tools have been designed to develop models within this approach: a simulation tool (SIM_GAMS), for models in which water is allocated each month based on supply priorities to competing uses and system operating rules, and an optimization tool (OPT_GAMS), in which water resources are allocated optimally following economic criteria. The characterization of the water resource network system requires a connectivity matrix representing the topology of the elements, generated using HydroPlatform. HydroPlatform, an open-source software platform for network (node-link) models, allows to store, display and export all information needed to characterize the system. Two generic non-linear models have been programmed in GAMS to use the inputs from HydroPlatform in simulation and optimization models. The simulation model allocates water resources on a monthly basis, according to different targets (demands, storage, environmental flows, hydropower production, etc.), priorities and other system operating rules (such as reservoir operating rules). The optimization model's objective function is designed so that the system meets operational targets (ranked according to priorities) each month while following system operating rules. This function is analogous to the one used in the simulation module of the DSS AQUATOOL. Each element of the system has its own contribution to the objective function through unit cost coefficients that preserve the relative priority rank and the system operating rules. The model incorporates groundwater and stream-aquifer interaction (allowing conjunctive use simulation) with a wide range of modeling options, from lumped and analytical approaches to parameter-distributed models (eigenvalue approach). Such functionality is not typically included in other water DSS. Based on the resulting water resources allocation, the model calculates operating and water scarcity costs caused by supply deficits based on economic demand functions for each demand node. The optimization model allocates the available resource over time based on economic criteria (net benefits from demand curves and cost functions), minimizing the total water scarcity and operating cost of water use. This approach provides solutions that optimize the economic efficiency (as total net benefit) in water resources management over the optimization period. Both models must be used together in water resource planning and management. The optimization model provides an initial insight on economically efficient solutions, from which different operating rules can be further developed and tested using the simulation model. The hydro-economic simulation model allows assessing economic impacts of alternative policies or operating criteria, avoiding the perfect foresight issues associated with the optimization. The tools have been applied to the Jucar river basin (Spain) in order to assess the economic results corresponding to the current modus operandi of the system and compare them with the solution from the optimization that maximizes economic efficiency. Acknowledgments: The study has been partially supported by the European Community 7th Framework Project (GENESIS project, n. 226536) and the Plan Nacional I+D+I 2008-2011 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CGL2009-13238-C02-01 and CGL2009-13238-C02-02).

A System of Systems Approach to the EU Energy System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jess, Tom; Madani, Kaveh; Mahlooji, Maral; Ristic, Bora

2016-04-01

Around the world, measures to prevent dangerous climate change are being adopted and may change energy systems fundamentally. The European Union (EU) is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emission by 20% by 2020 and by 80-95% by 2050. In order to achieve this, EU member states aim to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix to 20% by 2020. This commitment comes as part of a series of other aims, principles, and policies to reform the EU's energy system. Cost-efficiency in the emissions reductions measures as well as strategic goals under the Resource Efficient Europe flagship initiative which would include a more prudent approach to other natural resources such as water and land. Using the "System of Systems Approach", as from Hadian and Madani (2015), energy sources' Relative Aggregate Footprints (RAF) in the EU are evaluated. RAF aggregates across four criteria: carbon footprint, water footprint, land footprint, and economic cost. The four criteria are weighted by resource availability across the EU and for each Member State. This provides an evaluation of the overall resource use efficiency of the EU's energy portfolio and gives insight into the differences in the desirability of energy sources across Member States. Broadly, nuclear, onshore wind, and geothermal are most desirable under equal criteria weights and EU average weighting introduces only small changes in the relative performance of only few technologies. The member state specific weightings show that most countries have similar energy technology preferences. However, the UK deviates most strongly from the average, with an even stronger preference for nuclear and coal. Sweden, Malta and Finland also deviate from the typical preferences indicating the complexity in play in reforming the EU energy system. Reference Hadian S, Madani K (2015) A System of Systems Approach to Energy Sustainability Assessment: Are All Renewables Really Green? Ecological Indicators, 52, 194-206.

Utilizing an Energy Management System with Distributed Resources to Manage Critical Loads and Reduce Energy Costs

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-01

peak shaving, conducting power factor correction, matching critical load to most efficient distributed resource, and islanding a system during...photovoltaic arrays during islanding, and power factor correction, the implementation of the ESS by itself is likely to prove cost prohibitive. The DOD...These functions include peak shaving, conducting power factor correction, matching critical load to most efficient distributed resource, and islanding a

Predicting the future: opportunities and challenges for the chemical industry to apply 21st-century toxicity testing.

PubMed

Settivari, Raja S; Ball, Nicholas; Murphy, Lynea; Rasoulpour, Reza; Boverhof, Darrell R; Carney, Edward W

2015-03-01

Interest in applying 21st-century toxicity testing tools for safety assessment of industrial chemicals is growing. Whereas conventional toxicology uses mainly animal-based, descriptive methods, a paradigm shift is emerging in which computational approaches, systems biology, high-throughput in vitro toxicity assays, and high-throughput exposure assessments are beginning to be applied to mechanism-based risk assessments in a time- and resource-efficient fashion. Here we describe recent advances in predictive safety assessment, with a focus on their strategic application to meet the changing demands of the chemical industry and its stakeholders. The opportunities to apply these new approaches is extensive and include screening of new chemicals, informing the design of safer and more sustainable chemical alternatives, filling information gaps on data-poor chemicals already in commerce, strengthening read-across methodology for categories of chemicals sharing similar modes of action, and optimizing the design of reduced-risk product formulations. Finally, we discuss how these predictive approaches dovetail with in vivo integrated testing strategies within repeated-dose regulatory toxicity studies, which are in line with 3Rs principles to refine, reduce, and replace animal testing. Strategic application of these tools is the foundation for informed and efficient safety assessment testing strategies that can be applied at all stages of the product-development process.

Cost & efficiency evaluation of a publicly financed & publicly delivered referral transport service model in three districts of Haryana State, India.

PubMed

Prinja, Shankar; Manchanda, Neha; Aggarwal, Arun Kumar; Kaur, Manmeet; Jeet, Gursimer; Kumar, Rajesh

2013-12-01

Various models of referral transport services have been introduced in different States in India with an aim to reduce maternal and infant mortality. Most of the research on referral transport has focussed on coverage, quality and timeliness of the service with not much information on cost and efficiency. This study was undertaken to analyze the cost of a publicly financed and managed referral transport service model in three districts of Haryana State, and to assess its cost and technical efficiency. Data on all resources spent for delivering referral transport service, during 2010, were collected from three districts of Haryana State. Costs incurred at State level were apportioned using appropriate methods. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique was used to assess the technical efficiency of ambulances. To estimate the efficient scale of operation for ambulance service, the average cost was regressed on kilometres travelled for each ambulance station using a quadratic regression equation. The cost of referral transport per year varied from [symbol: see text] 5.2 million in Narnaul to [symbol: see text] 9.8 million in Ambala. Salaries (36-50%) constituted the major cost. Referral transport was found to be operating at an average efficiency level of 76.8 per cent. Operating an ambulance with a patient load of 137 per month was found to reduce unit costs from an average [symbol: see text] 15.5 per km to [symbol: see text] 9.57 per km. Our results showed that the publicly delivered referral transport services in Haryana were operating at an efficient level. Increasing the demand for referral transport services among the target population represents an opportunity for further improving the efficiency of the underutilized ambulances.

Cost & efficiency evaluation of a publicly financed & publicly delivered referral transport service model in three districts of Haryana State, India

PubMed Central

Prinja, Shankar; Manchanda, Neha; Aggarwal, Arun Kumar; Kaur, Manmeet; Jeet, Gursimer; Kumar, Rajesh

2013-01-01

Background & objectives: Various models of referral transport services have been introduced in different States in India with an aim to reduce maternal and infant mortality. Most of the research on referral transport has focussed on coverage, quality and timeliness of the service with not much information on cost and efficiency. This study was undertaken to analyze the cost of a publicly financed and managed referral transport service model in three districts of Haryana State, and to assess its cost and technical efficiency. Methods: Data on all resources spent for delivering referral transport service, during 2010, were collected from three districts of Haryana State. Costs incurred at State level were apportioned using appropriate methods. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique was used to assess the technical efficiency of ambulances. To estimate the efficient scale of operation for ambulance service, the average cost was regressed on kilometres travelled for each ambulance station using a quadratic regression equation. Results: The cost of referral transport per year varied from ₹5.2 million in Narnaul to ₹9.8 million in Ambala. Salaries (36-50%) constituted the major cost. Referral transport was found to be operating at an average efficiency level of 76.8 per cent. Operating an ambulance with a patient load of 137 per month was found to reduce unit costs from an average ₹ 15.5 per km to ₹ 9.57 per km. Interpretation & conclusions: Our results showed that the publicly delivered referral transport services in Haryana were operating at an efficient level. Increasing the demand for referral transport services among the target population represents an opportunity for further improving the efficiency of the underutilized ambulances. PMID:24521648

Improving productivity and firm performance with enterprise resource planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beheshti, Hooshang M.; Beheshti, Cyrus M.

2010-11-01

Productivity is generally considered to be the efficient utilisation of organisational resources and is measured in terms of the efficiency of a worker, company or nation. Focusing on efficiency alone, however, can be harmful to the organisation's long-term success and competitiveness. The full benefits of productivity improvement measures are realised when productivity is examined from two perspectives: operational efficiency (output/input) of an individual worker or a business unit as well as performance (effectiveness) with regard to end user or customer satisfaction. Over the years, corporations have adopted new technology to integrate business activities in order to achieve both effectiveness and efficiency in their operations. In recent years, many firms have invested in enterprise resource planning (ERP) in order to integrate all business activities into a uniform system. The implementation of ERP enables the firm to reduce the transaction costs of the business and improve its productivity, customer satisfaction and profitability.

Economics of immunization information systems in the United States: assessing costs and efficiency.

PubMed

Bartlett, Diana L; Molinari, Noelle-Angelique M; Ortega-Sanchez, Ismael R; Urquhart, Gary A

2006-08-22

One of the United States' national health objectives for 2010 is that 95% of children aged <6 years participate in fully operational population-based immunization information systems (IIS). Despite important progress, child participation in most IIS has increased slowly, in part due to limited economic knowledge about IIS operations. Should IIS need further improvement, characterizing costs and identifying factors that affect IIS efficiency become crucial. Data were collected from a national sampling frame of the 56 states/cities that received federal immunization grants under U.S. Public Health Service Act 317b and completed the federal 1999 Immunization Registry Annual Report. The sampling frame was stratified by IIS functional status, children's enrollment in the IIS, and whether the IIS had been developed as an independent system or was integrated into a larger system. These sites self-reported IIS developmental and operational program costs for calendar years 1998-2002 using a standardized data collection tool and underwent on-site interviews to verify reported data with information from the state/city financial management system and other financial records. A parametric cost-per-patient-record (CPR) model was estimated. The model assessed the impact of labor and non-labor resources used in development and operations tasks, as well as the impact of information technology, local providers' participation and compliance with federal IIS performance standards (e.g., ensuring the confidentiality and security of information, ensure timely vaccination data at the time of patient encounter, and produce official immunization records). Given the number of records minimizing CPR, the additional amount of resources needed to meet national health goals for the year 2010 was also calculated. Estimated CPR was as high as $10.30 and as low as $0.09 in operating IIS. About 20% of IIS had between 2.9 to 3.2 million records and showed CPR estimates of $0.09. Overall, CPR was highly sensitive to local providers' participation. To achieve the 2010 goals, additional aggregated costs were estimated to be $75.6 million nationwide. Efficiently increasing the number of records in IIS would require additional resources and careful consideration of various strategies to minimize CPR, such as boosting providers' participation.

Risk assessment and adaptive runoff utilization in water resource system considering the complex relationship among water supply, electricity generation and environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, J.; Zeng, X.; Mo, L.; Chen, L.; Jiang, Z.; Feng, Z.; Yuan, L.; He, Z.

2017-12-01

Generally, the adaptive utilization and regulation of runoff in the source region of China's southwest rivers is classified as a typical multi-objective collaborative optimization problem. There are grim competitions and incidence relation in the subsystems of water supply, electricity generation and environment, which leads to a series of complex problems represented by hydrological process variation, blocked electricity output and water environment risk. Mathematically, the difficulties of multi-objective collaborative optimization focus on the description of reciprocal relationships and the establishment of evolving model of adaptive systems. Thus, based on the theory of complex systems science, this project tries to carry out the research from the following aspects: the changing trend of coupled water resource, the covariant factor and driving mechanism, the dynamic evolution law of mutual feedback dynamic process in the supply-generation-environment coupled system, the environmental response and influence mechanism of coupled mutual feedback water resource system, the relationship between leading risk factor and multiple risk based on evolutionary stability and dynamic balance, the transfer mechanism of multiple risk response with the variation of the leading risk factor, the multidimensional coupled feedback system of multiple risk assessment index system and optimized decision theory. Based on the above-mentioned research results, the dynamic method balancing the efficiency of multiple objectives in the coupled feedback system and optimized regulation model of water resources is proposed, and the adaptive scheduling mode considering the internal characteristics and external response of coupled mutual feedback system of water resource is established. In this way, the project can make a contribution to the optimal scheduling theory and methodology of water resource management under uncertainty in the source region of Southwest River.

Accounting for ecosystem services in Life Cycle Assessment, Part II: toward an ecologically based LCA.

PubMed

Zhang, Yi; Baral, Anil; Bakshi, Bhavik R

2010-04-01

Despite the essential role of ecosystem goods and services in sustaining all human activities, they are often ignored in engineering decision making, even in methods that are meant to encourage sustainability. For example, conventional Life Cycle Assessment focuses on the impact of emissions and consumption of some resources. While aggregation and interpretation methods are quite advanced for emissions, similar methods for resources have been lagging, and most ignore the role of nature. Such oversight may even result in perverse decisions that encourage reliance on deteriorating ecosystem services. This article presents a step toward including the direct and indirect role of ecosystems in LCA, and a hierarchical scheme to interpret their contribution. The resulting Ecologically Based LCA (Eco-LCA) includes a large number of provisioning, regulating, and supporting ecosystem services as inputs to a life cycle model at the process or economy scale. These resources are represented in diverse physical units and may be compared via their mass, fuel value, industrial cumulative exergy consumption, or ecological cumulative exergy consumption or by normalization with total consumption of each resource or their availability. Such results at a fine scale provide insight about relative resource use and the risk and vulnerability to the loss of specific resources. Aggregate indicators are also defined to obtain indices such as renewability, efficiency, and return on investment. An Eco-LCA model of the 1997 economy is developed and made available via the web (www.resilience.osu.edu/ecolca). An illustrative example comparing paper and plastic cups provides insight into the features of the proposed approach. The need for further work in bridging the gap between knowledge about ecosystem services and their direct and indirect role in supporting human activities is discussed as an important area for future work.

Health resources management and physician control in a San Francisco, California, hospital.

PubMed Central

Rosenstein, A. H.; Stier, M. M.

1991-01-01

The continued escalation in health care spending has caused money to become an increasingly limited resource, which may eventually affect the ability of health professionals to provide complete health care services. Health care payers have stressed efficiency and the appropriateness of health care measures and are putting greater financial pressures on health professionals by making them more accountable for services provided. Hospitals and physicians must take a more active role in monitoring health care delivery and work together to improve performance efficiency. Efficiency can be gained through a comprehensive program that emphasizes high-quality care and the effective use of health care resources. The Health Resource Management Program is a model for carrying out this function that integrates data analysis and physician input and education. Images PMID:2006564

New Control Paradigms for Resources Saving: An Approach for Mobile Robots Navigation.

PubMed

Socas, Rafael; Dormido, Raquel; Dormido, Sebastián

2018-01-18

In this work, an event-based control scheme is presented. The proposed system has been developed to solve control problems appearing in the field of Networked Control Systems (NCS). Several models and methodologies have been proposed to measure different resources consumptions. The use of bandwidth, computational load and energy resources have been investigated. This analysis shows how the parameters of the system impacts on the resources efficiency. Moreover, the proposed system has been compared with its equivalent discrete-time solution. In the experiments, an application of NCS for mobile robots navigation has been set up and its resource usage efficiency has been analysed.

New Control Paradigms for Resources Saving: An Approach for Mobile Robots Navigation

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

In this work, an event-based control scheme is presented. The proposed system has been developed to solve control problems appearing in the field of Networked Control Systems (NCS). Several models and methodologies have been proposed to measure different resources consumptions. The use of bandwidth, computational load and energy resources have been investigated. This analysis shows how the parameters of the system impacts on the resources efficiency. Moreover, the proposed system has been compared with its equivalent discrete-time solution. In the experiments, an application of NCS for mobile robots navigation has been set up and its resource usage efficiency has been analysed. PMID:29346321

Application and utility of a low-cost unmanned aerial system to manage and conserve aquatic resources in four Texas rivers

USGS Publications Warehouse

Birdsong, Timothy W.; Bean, Megan; Grabowski, Timothy B.; Hardy, Thomas B.; Heard, Thomas; Holdstock, Derrick; Kollaus, Kristy; Magnelia, Stephan J.; Tolman, Kristina

2015-01-01

Low-cost unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have recently gained increasing attention in natural resources management due to their versatility and demonstrated utility in collection of high-resolution, temporally-specific geospatial data. This study applied low-cost UAS to support the geospatial data needs of aquatic resources management projects in four Texas rivers. Specifically, a UAS was used to (1) map invasive salt cedar (multiple species in the genus Tamarix) that have degraded instream habitat conditions in the Pease River, (2) map instream meso-habitats and structural habitat features (e.g., boulders, woody debris) in the South Llano River as a baseline prior to watershed-scale habitat improvements, (3) map enduring pools in the Blanco River during drought conditions to guide smallmouth bass removal efforts, and (4) quantify river use by anglers in the Guadalupe River. These four case studies represent an initial step toward assessing the full range of UAS applications in aquatic resources management, including their ability to offer potential cost savings, time efficiencies, and higher quality data over traditional survey methods.

Practices and perceptions on water resource sustainability in ecovillages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Moura Leite, Flavia Brunale Vilela; Bertolo, Lídia Sanches; Santos, Rozely Ferreira

2016-08-01

In many areas of the world, groups of people have attempted to create urban landscapes that follow the principles of environmental sustainability. To this end, groups have devised alternative models, such as ecovillages, where low-impact handling is used and a way of life different from that of large population centers is adopted. Although these villages exist, their efficiency in the conservation of natural resources has not been effectively evaluated. This study evaluated the practices used by two Brazilian ecovillages to conserve water resources to assess whether this new concept of living is indeed successful in meeting sustainability goals. We selected 25 indicators of water sustainability, and using the compromise programming method, we quantified the distance between those landscapes self-referenced as sustainable and an ideal hypothetical scenario. We also interpreted the communities perceptions using the distance between the current situations and the envisioned scenario. We concluded that both ecovillage are far from technically ideal scenario, but the communities have a strong sense of their limitations in implementing water resources conservation. The communities attributed this fact primarily to deficiencies in the shared management.

Resource Efficient Metal and Material Recycling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reuter, Markus A.; van Schaik, Antoinette

Metals enable sustainability through their use and their recyclability. However, various factors can affect the Resource Efficiency of Metal Processing and Recycling. Some typical factors that enable Resource Efficiency include and arranged under the drivers of sustainability: Environment (Maximize Resource Efficiency — Energy, Recyclates, Materials, Water, Sludges, Emissions, Land); Economic Feasibility (BAT & Recycling Systems Simulation / Digitalization, Product vis-à-vis Material Centric Recycling); and Social — Licence to Operate (Legislation, consumer, policy, theft, manual labour.). In order to realize this primary production has to be linked systemically with typical actors in the recycling chain such as Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Recyclers & Collection, Physical separation specialists as well as process metallurgical operations that produce high value metals, compounds and products that recycle back to products. This is best done with deep knowledge of multi-physics, technology, product & system design, process control, market, life cycle management, policy, to name a few. The combination of these will be discussed as Design for Sustainability (DfS) and Design for Recycling (DfR) applications.

Assessment and Methods for Supply-Following Loads in Modern Electricity Grids with Deep Renewables Penetration

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-12-18

from a combination of increased electricity demand, poor output from the large contingent of wind turbines in Texas (the most in the U.S.), and...2.8 GW of wind power farms in California are onshore, consist of low-altitude (m) wind turbines , and are located in 8 of California’s 58 counties...offshore wind turbines , and the improvement of turbine efficiency will enable massive potential wind resources. Looking more closely at the temporal

Assessing the Alignment of Information Security with Strategic Business, and Strategic Information System Planning: A Department of Defense Perspective

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-06-01

Wolfgang. "Appraisal of the effectivness and efficiency of an Information Security Management System based on ISO 27001 ." International Conference on...of corporate information resources (Doherty and 29 Fulford, 2006) ( ISO /IEC 17799, 2005). Both public and private sectors of business have...Science Ltd, 2002. Iacovou, Charalambos L. "The IPACS project: when IT hits the fan." Journal of Information Technology, 1999: 267-275. ISO /IEC 17799

Climate Change Impacts on Rivers and Implications for Electricity Generation in the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miara, A.; Vorosmarty, C. J.; Macknick, J.; Corsi, F.; Cohen, S. M.; Tidwell, V. C.; Newmark, R. L.; Prousevitch, A.

2015-12-01

The contemporary power sector in the United States is heavily reliant on water resources to provide cooling water for thermoelectric generation. Efficient thermoelectric plant operations require large volumes of water at sufficiently cool temperatures for their cooling process. The total amount of water that is withdrawn or consumed for cooling and any potential declines in efficiencies are determined by the sector's fuel mix and cooling technologies. As such, the impact of climate change, and the extent of impact, on the power sector is shaped by the choice of electricity generation technologies that will be built over the coming decades. In this study, we model potential changes in river discharge and temperature in the contiguous US under a set of climate scenarios to year 2050 using the Water Balance Model-Thermoelectric Power and Thermal Pollution Model (WBM-TP2M). Together, these models quantify, in high-resolution (3-min), river temperatures, discharge and power plant efficiency losses associated with changes in available cooling water that incorporates climate, hydrology, river network dynamics and multi-plant impacts, on both single power plant and regional scales. Results are used to assess the aptness and vulnerability of contemporary and alternative electricity generation pathways to changes in climate and water availability for cooling purposes, and the concomitant impacts on power plant operating efficiencies. We assess the potential impacts by comparing six regions (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Great Plains, Southwest, Northwest as in the National Climate Assessment (2014)) across the US. These experiments allow us to assess tradeoffs among electricity-water-climate to provide useful insight for decision-makers managing regional power production and aquatic environments.

CO2 abatement costs of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation by different biogas conversion pathways.

PubMed

Rehl, T; Müller, J

2013-01-15

Biogas will be of increasing importance in the future as a factor in reducing greenhouse gas emissions cost-efficiently by the optimal use of available resources and technologies. The goal of this study was to identify the most ecological and economical use of a given resource (organic waste from residential, commercial and industry sectors) using one specific treatment technology (anaerobic digestion) but applying different energy conversion technologies. Average and marginal abatement costs were calculated based on Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies. Eight new biogas systems producing electricity, heat, gas or automotive fuel were analyzed in order to identify the most cost-efficient way of reducing GHG emissions. A system using a combined heat and power station (which is connected to waste treatment and digestion operation facilities and located nearby potential residential, commercial or industrial heat users) was found to be the most cost-efficient biogas technology for reducing GHG emissions. Up to € 198 per tonne of CO(2) equivalents can be saved by replacing the "business as usual" systems based on fossil resources with ones based on biogas. Limited gas injection (desulfurized and dried biogas, without compression and upgrading) into the gas grid can also be a viable option with an abatement cost saving of € 72 per tonne of CO(2) equivalents, while a heating plant with a district heating grid or a system based on biogas results in higher abatement costs (€ 267 and € 270 per tonne CO(2) eq). Results from all systems are significantly influenced by whether average or marginal data are used as a reference. Beside that energy efficiency, the reference system that was replaced and the by-products as well as feedstock and investment costs were identified to be parameters with major impacts on abatement costs. The quantitative analysis was completed by a discussion of the role that abatement cost methodology can play in decision-making. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

OECD Reviews of School Resources: Czech Republic 2016. OECD Reviews of School Resources

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shewbridge, Claire; Herczynski, Jan; Radinger, Thomas; Sonnemann, Julie

2016-01-01

The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The "OECD Reviews of School Resources" explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education. The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as…

Inference from habitat-selection analysis depends on foraging strategies.

PubMed

Bastille-Rousseau, Guillaume; Fortin, Daniel; Dussault, Christian

2010-11-01

1. Several methods have been developed to assess habitat selection, most of which are based on a comparison between habitat attributes in used vs. unused or random locations, such as the popular resource selection functions (RSFs). Spatial evaluation of residency time has been recently proposed as a promising avenue for studying habitat selection. Residency-time analyses assume a positive relationship between residency time within habitat patches and selection. We demonstrate that RSF and residency-time analyses provide different information about the process of habitat selection. Further, we show how the consideration of switching rate between habitat patches (interpatch movements) together with residency-time analysis can reveal habitat-selection strategies. 2. Spatially explicit, individual-based modelling was used to simulate foragers displaying one of six foraging strategies in a heterogeneous environment. The strategies combined one of three patch-departure rules (fixed-quitting-harvest-rate, fixed-time and fixed-amount strategy), together with one of two interpatch-movement rules (random or biased). Habitat selection of simulated foragers was then assessed using RSF, residency-time and interpatch-movement analyses. 3. Our simulations showed that RSFs and residency times are not always equivalent. When foragers move in a non-random manner and do not increase residency time in richer patches, residency-time analysis can provide misleading assessments of habitat selection. This is because the overall time spent in the various patch types not only depends on residency times, but also on interpatch-movement decisions. 4. We suggest that RSFs provide the outcome of the entire selection process, whereas residency-time and interpatch-movement analyses can be used in combination to reveal the mechanisms behind the selection process. 5. We showed that there is a risk in using residency-time analysis alone to infer habitat selection. Residency-time analyses, however, may enlighten the mechanisms of habitat selection by revealing central components of resource-use strategies. Given that management decisions are often based on resource-selection analyses, the evaluation of resource-use strategies can be key information for the development of efficient habitat-management strategies. Combining RSF, residency-time and interpatch-movement analyses is a simple and efficient way to gain a more comprehensive understanding of habitat selection. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 British Ecological Society.

Towards the review of the European Union Water Framework Directive: Recommendations for more efficient assessment and management of chemical contamination in European surface water resources.

PubMed

Brack, Werner; Dulio, Valeria; Ågerstrand, Marlene; Allan, Ian; Altenburger, Rolf; Brinkmann, Markus; Bunke, Dirk; Burgess, Robert M; Cousins, Ian; Escher, Beate I; Hernández, Félix J; Hewitt, L Mark; Hilscherová, Klára; Hollender, Juliane; Hollert, Henner; Kase, Robert; Klauer, Bernd; Lindim, Claudia; Herráez, David López; Miège, Cécil; Munthe, John; O'Toole, Simon; Posthuma, Leo; Rüdel, Heinz; Schäfer, Ralf B; Sengl, Manfred; Smedes, Foppe; van de Meent, Dik; van den Brink, Paul J; van Gils, Jos; van Wezel, Annemarie P; Vethaak, A Dick; Vermeirssen, Etienne; von der Ohe, Peter C; Vrana, Branislav

2017-01-15

Water is a vital resource for natural ecosystems and human life, and assuring a high quality of water and protecting it from chemical contamination is a major societal goal in the European Union. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) and its daughter directives are the major body of legislation for the protection and sustainable use of European freshwater resources. The practical implementation of the WFD with regard to chemical pollution has faced some challenges. In support of the upcoming WFD review in 2019 the research project SOLUTIONS and the European monitoring network NORMAN has analyzed these challenges, evaluated the state-of-the-art of the science and suggested possible solutions. We give 10 recommendations to improve monitoring and to strengthen comprehensive prioritization, to foster consistent assessment and to support solution-oriented management of surface waters. The integration of effect-based tools, the application of passive sampling for bioaccumulative chemicals and an integrated strategy for prioritization of contaminants, accounting for knowledge gaps, are seen as important approaches to advance monitoring. Including all relevant chemical contaminants in more holistic "chemical status" assessment, using effect-based trigger values to address priority mixtures of chemicals, to better consider historical burdens accumulated in sediments and to use models to fill data gaps are recommended for a consistent assessment of contamination. Solution-oriented management should apply a tiered approach in investigative monitoring to identify toxicity drivers, strengthen consistent legislative frameworks and apply solutions-oriented approaches that explore risk reduction scenarios before and along with risk assessment. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Contribution of case-mix classification to profiling hospital characteristics and productivity.

PubMed

Kuwabara, Kazuaki; Matsuda, Shinya; Fushimi, Kiyohide; Ishikawa, Koichi B; Horiguchi, Hiromasa; Hayashida, Kenshi; Fujimori, Kenji

2011-01-01

Case-mix classification has made it possible to analyze acute care delivery case volumes and resources. Data arising from observed differences have a role in planning health policy. Aggregated length of hospital stay (LOS) and total charges (TC) as measures of resource use were calculated from 34 case-mix groups at 469 hospitals (1,721,274 eligible patients). The difference between mean resource use of all hospitals and the mean resource use of each hospital was subdivided into three components: amount of variation attributable to hospital practice behavior (efficiency); amount attributable to hospital case-mix (complexity); and amount attributable to the interaction. Hospital characteristics were teaching status (academic or community), ownership, disease coverage, patients, and hospital volume. Multivariate analysis was employed to determine the impact of hospital characteristics on efficiency. Mean LOS and TC were greater for academic than community hospitals. Academic hospitals were least associated with LOS and TC efficiency. Low disease coverage was a predictor of TC efficiency while low patient volume was a predictor of unnecessarily long hospital stays. There was an inverse correlation between complexity and efficiency for both LOS and TC. Policy makers should acknowledge that differentiation of hospital function needs careful consideration when measuring efficiency. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Drought response of mesophyll conductance in forest understory species--impacts on water-use efficiency and interactions with leaf water movement.

PubMed

Hommel, Robert; Siegwolf, Rolf; Saurer, Matthias; Farquhar, Graham D; Kayler, Zachary; Ferrio, Juan Pedro; Gessler, Arthur

2014-09-01

Regulation of stomatal (gs ) and mesophyll conductance (gm ) is an efficient means for optimizing the relationship between water loss and carbon uptake in plants. We assessed water-use efficiency (WUE)-based drought adaptation strategies with respect to mesophyll conductance of different functional plant groups of the forest understory. Moreover we aimed at assessing the mechanisms of and interactions between water and CO2 conductance in the mesophyll. The facts that an increase in WUE was observed only in the two species that increased gm in response to moderate drought, and that over all five species examined, changes in mesophyll conductance were significantly correlated with the drought-induced change in WUE, proves the importance of gm in optimizing resource use under water restriction. There was no clear correlation of mesophyll CO2 conductance and the tortuosity of water movement in the leaf across the five species in the control and drought treatments. This points either to different main pathways for CO2 and water in the mesophyll either to different regulation of a common pathway. © 2014 Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society.

Smoking Cessation and the Internet: A Qualitative Method Examining Online Consumer Behavior

PubMed Central

Frisby, Genevieve; Borland, Ron; Anderson, Jeremy N

2002-01-01

Background Smoking is a major preventable cause of disease and disability around the world. Smoking cessation support — including information, discussion groups, cognitive behavioral treatment, and self-help materials — can be delivered via the Internet. There is limited information about the reasons and methods consumers access smoking cessation information on the Internet. Objectives This study aims to determine the feasibility of a method to examine the online behavior of consumers seeking smoking cessation resources. In particular, we sought to identify the reasons and methods consumers use to access and assess the quality of these resources. Methods Thirteen participants were recruited via the state-based Quit® smoking cessation campaign, operated by the Victorian Cancer Council, in December 2001. Online behavior was evaluated using semi-structured interviews and Internet simulations where participants sought smoking cessation information and addressed set-case scenarios. Online interaction was tracked through pervasive logging with specialist software. Results Thirteen semi-structured interviews and 4 Internet simulations were conducted in January 2002. Participants sought online smoking cessation resources for reasons of convenience, timeliness, and anonymity — and because their current information needs were unmet. They employed simple search strategies and could not always find information in an efficient manner. Participants employed several different strategies to assess the quality of online health resources. Conclusions Consumer online behavior can be studied using a combination of survey, observation, and online surveillance. However, further qualitative and observational research is required to harness the full potential of the Internet to deliver public health resources. PMID:12554555

Chemical considerations for an updated National assessment of brackish groundwater resources

USGS Publications Warehouse

McMahon, Peter B.; Böhlke, John Karl; Dahm, Katharine; Parkhurst, David L.; Anning, David W.; Stanton, Jennifer S.

2016-01-01

Brackish groundwater (BGW) is increasingly used for water supplies where fresh water is scarce, but the distribution and availability of such resources have not been characterized at the national scale in the United States since the 1960s. Apart from its distribution and accessibility, BGW usability is a function of the chemical requirements of the intended use, chemical characteristics of the resource, and treatment options to make the resource compatible with the use. Here, we discuss relations between these three chemical factors using national-scale examples and local case studies. In a preliminary compilation of BGW data in the United States, five water types accounted for the major-ion composition of 70% of samples. PHREEQC calculations indicate that 57–77% of samples were oversaturated with respect to barite, calcite, or chalcedony. In the study, 5–14% of samples had concentrations of arsenic, fluoride, nitrate, or uranium that exceeded drinking-water standards. In case studies of the potential use of BGW for drinking water, irrigation, and hydraulic fracturing, PHREEQC simulations of a hypothetical treatment process resembling reverse osmosis (RO) showed that BGW had the potential to form various assemblages of mineral deposits (scale) during treatment that could adversely affect RO membranes. Speciation calculations showed that most boron in the irrigation example occurred as boric acid, which has relatively low removal efficiency by RO. Results of this preliminary study indicate that effective national or regional assessments of BGW resources should include geochemical characterizations that are guided in part by specific use and treatment requirements.

Geographic Information Systems and Web Page Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reynolds, Justin

2004-01-01

The Facilities Engineering and Architectural Branch is responsible for the design and maintenance of buildings, laboratories, and civil structures. In order to improve efficiency and quality, the FEAB has dedicated itself to establishing a data infrastructure based on Geographic Information Systems, GIS. The value of GIS was explained in an article dating back to 1980 entitled "Need for a Multipurpose Cadastre" which stated, "There is a critical need for a better land-information system in the United States to improve land-conveyance procedures, furnish a basis for equitable taxation, and provide much-needed information for resource management and environmental planning." Scientists and engineers both point to GIS as the solution. What is GIS? According to most text books, Geographic Information Systems is a class of software that stores, manages, and analyzes mapable features on, above, or below the surface of the earth. GIS software is basically database management software to the management of spatial data and information. Simply put, Geographic Information Systems manage, analyze, chart, graph, and map spatial information. GIS can be broken down into two main categories, urban GIS and natural resource GIS. Further still, natural resource GIS can be broken down into six sub-categories, agriculture, forestry, wildlife, catchment management, archaeology, and geology/mining. Agriculture GIS has several applications, such as agricultural capability analysis, land conservation, market analysis, or whole farming planning. Forestry GIs can be used for timber assessment and management, harvest scheduling and planning, environmental impact assessment, and pest management. GIS when used in wildlife applications enables the user to assess and manage habitats, identify and track endangered and rare species, and monitor impact assessment.

Physician allocation of Medicare resources for patients with advanced cancer.

PubMed

Rocke, Daniel J; Lee, Walter T; Beumer, Halton W; Taylor, Donald H; Schulz, Kristine; Thomas, Steven; Puscas, Liana

2013-08-01

Little is known about what patients and physicians value in end-of-life care, or how these groups would craft a health plan for those with advanced cancer. The study objective was to assess how otolaryngology, head and neck surgery (OHNS) physicians would structure a Medicare benefit plan for patients with advanced cancer, and to compare this with cancer patient and cancer patient caregiver preferences. OHNS physicians used an online version of a validated tool for assessing preferences for health plans in the setting of limited resources. These data were compared to cancer patient and caregiver preferences. OHNS physicians nationwide were assessed with comparison to similar data obtained in a separate study of cancer patients and their caregivers treated at Duke University Medical Center. Otolaryngology physicians (n=767) completed the online assessment and this was compared with data from 146 patients and 114 caregivers. OHNS physician allocations differed significantly in 14 of the 15 benefit categories when compared with patients and caregivers. Physicians elected more coverage in the Advice, Emotional Care, Palliative Care, and Treatment for Cancer benefit categories. Patients and their caregivers elected more coverage in the Cash, Complementary Care, Cosmetic Care, Dental and Vision, Drug Coverage, Home Improvement, House Calls, Nursing Facility, Other Medical Care, and Primary Care benefit categories. Otolaryngology physicians have significantly different values in end-of-life care than cancer patients and their caregivers. This information is important for efficient allocation of scarce Medicare resources and for effective end-of-life discussions, both of which are key for developing appropriate health policy.

Integrated Medical Model (IMM) Optimization Version 4.0 Functional Improvements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arellano, John; Young, M.; Boley, L.; Garcia, Y.; Saile, L.; Walton, M.; Kerstman, E.; Reyes, D.; Goodenow, D. A.; Myers, J. G.

2016-01-01

The IMMs ability to assess mission outcome risk levels relative to available resources provides a unique capability to provide guidance on optimal operational medical kit and vehicle resources. Post-processing optimization allows IMM to optimize essential resources to improve a specific model outcome such as maximization of the Crew Health Index (CHI), or minimization of the probability of evacuation (EVAC) or the loss of crew life (LOCL). Mass and or volume constrain the optimized resource set. The IMMs probabilistic simulation uses input data on one hundred medical conditions to simulate medical events that may occur in spaceflight, the resources required to treat those events, and the resulting impact to the mission based on specific crew and mission characteristics. Because IMM version 4.0 provides for partial treatment for medical events, IMM Optimization 4.0 scores resources at the individual resource unit increment level as opposed to the full condition-specific treatment set level, as done in version 3.0. This allows the inclusion of as many resources as possible in the event that an entire set of resources called out for treatment cannot satisfy the constraints. IMM Optimization version 4.0 adds capabilities that increase efficiency by creating multiple resource sets based on differing constraints and priorities, CHI, EVAC, or LOCL. It also provides sets of resources that improve mission-related IMM v4.0 outputs with improved performance compared to the prior optimization. The new optimization represents much improved fidelity that will improve the utility of the IMM 4.0 for decision support.

Use of cancer-specific mental health resources-is there an urban-rural divide?

PubMed

Beraldi, Anna; Kukk, Ene; Nest, Alexandra; Schubert-Fritschle, Gabriele; Engel, Jutta; Heußner, Pia; Herschbach, Peter

2015-05-01

The purpose of this study is to establish whether mental health (MH) outcomes, attitudes towards cancer-specific MH (CSMH) resources, and the availability of such resources differ between rural and urban cancer patients. Three months after surgery for colorectal cancer, patients received a questionnaire for completion at home assessing distress, depression, anxiety, acceptance, knowledge and use of CSMH resources and the doctor-patient relationship. We adjusted our sample to reference data of the Munich Cancer Registry and documented CSMH resources (e.g. cancer-specific information centres and cancer support groups) using a systematic Internet search. Five hundred thirty-four patients participated with a mean age of 68.9 years; 44.5 % were female. Urban patients talked less with their doctor about their emotional state (65 %, p < 0.01) and showed poorer knowledge of CSMH resources (60 %, p < 0.002). A good doctor-patient relationship was associated with a better MH outcome. A significant predictor for acceptance was distress. Ninety-four percent of patients without a nearby support facility lived in rural areas (p < 0.001). There were no group differences concerning distress, MH outcomes, or acceptance of CSMH resources. Despite a higher availability of CSMH resources, urban patients showed poorer doctor-patient relationships and less knowledge of such resources than rural patients. Overall, knowledge and use of these resources were poor. The amount of support facilities available therefore appears to be less important than establishing an efficient communication network between patients, doctors and providers of CSMH resources to achieve satisfaction with treatment of urban and rural cancer patients.

Determining best practices in reconnoitering sites for habitability potential on Mars using a semi-autonomous rover: A GeoHeuristic Operational Strategies Test

PubMed Central

Yingst, R.A.; Berger, J.; Cohen, B.A.; Hynek, B.; Schmidt, M.E.

2017-01-01

We tested science operations strategies developed for use in remote mobile spacecraft missions, to determine whether reconnoitering a site of potential habitability prior to in-depth study (a walkabout-first strategy) can be a more efficient use of time and resources than the linear approach commonly used by planetary rover missions. Two field teams studied a sedimentary sequence in Utah to assess habitability potential. At each site one team commanded a human “rover” to execute observations and conducted data analysis and made follow-on decisions based solely on those observations. Another team followed the same traverse using traditional terrestrial field methods, and the results of the two teams were compared. Test results indicate that for a mission with goals similar to our field case, the walkabout-first strategy may save time and other mission resources, while improving science return. The approach enabled more informed choices and higher team confidence in choosing where to spend time and other consumable resources. The walkabout strategy may prove most efficient when many close sites must be triaged to a smaller subset for detailed study or sampling. This situation would arise when mission goals include finding, identifying, characterizing or sampling a specific material, feature or type of environment within a certain area. PMID:29307922

OECD Reviews of School Resources: Uruguay 2016

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santiago, Paulo; Ávalos, Beatrice; Burn, Tracey; Morduchowicz, Alejandro; Radinger, Thomas

2016-01-01

The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The "OECD Reviews of School Resources" explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education. The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as…

Projections of Virtual Water Trade Under Agricultural Policy Scenarios in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalin, C.; Hanasaki, N.; Qiu, H.; Mauzerall, D. L.; Rodriguez-Iturbe, I.

2014-12-01

China's economic growth is expected to continue into the next decades, accompanied by a sustained urbanization and industrialization. The associated increase in demand for land, water resources and rich foods will deepen the challenge to sustainably feed the population and balance environmental and agricultural policies. In previous work, Inner Mongolia was identified as a target province for trade or agricultural policies aimed at water-use efficiency improvements, due to its large production relying on particularly significant irrigation water use. In addition, water scarcity issues may arises in the greater Beijing area, which represents the largest urban area of arid Northern China. Increasing residential and industrial water demand in this region may lead to fewer available water for irrigation. For these reasons, it is important to estimate the impacts of specific policies aiming at reducing excessive water use for crop production in Inner Mongolia, as well as exploring ways to mitigate pressure on water resources in dry urban areas. In this study, we use socio-economic projections to assess the future state of China's virtual water trade (VWT) network. We then quantify the effects of agricultural policies on the national VWT system and on the efficiency of food trade in terms of water resources. This study addresses the following questions: (1) How future socio-economic changes will affect China's food trade and associated water transfers? (2) To which extent localized reductions of irrigated area can decrease agricultural water use while maintaining national food security? (3) How would these policies affect China's domestic and international VWT network and induced water resources savings (losses)?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hameed, Abdul; Khoshkbarforoushha, Alireza; Ranjan, Rajiv

In a cloud computing paradigm, energy efficient allocation of different virtualized ICT resources (servers, storage disks, and networks, and the like) is a complex problem due to the presence of heterogeneous application (e.g., content delivery networks, MapReduce, web applications, and the like) workloads having contentious allocation requirements in terms of ICT resource capacities (e.g., network bandwidth, processing speed, response time, etc.). Several recent papers have tried to address the issue of improving energy efficiency in allocating cloud resources to applications with varying degree of success. However, to the best of our knowledge there is no published literature on this subjectmore » that clearly articulates the research problem and provides research taxonomy for succinct classification of existing techniques. Hence, the main aim of this paper is to identify open challenges associated with energy efficient resource allocation. In this regard, the study, first, outlines the problem and existing hardware and software-based techniques available for this purpose. Furthermore, available techniques already presented in the literature are summarized based on the energy-efficient research dimension taxonomy. The advantages and disadvantages of the existing techniques are comprehensively analyzed against the proposed research dimension taxonomy namely: resource adaption policy, objective function, allocation method, allocation operation, and interoperability.« less

Study on Equity and Efficiency of Health Resources and Services Based on Key Indicators in China

PubMed Central

Zhang, Xinyu; Zhao, Lin; Cui, Zhuang; Wang, Yaogang

2015-01-01

Background This study aims to evaluate the dialectical relationship between equity and efficiency of health resource allocation and health service utilization in China. Methods We analyzed the inequity of health resource allocation and health service utilization based on concentration index (CI) and Gini coefficient. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to evaluate the inefficiency of resource allocation and service utilization. Factor Analysis (FA) was used to determine input/output indicators. Results The CI of Health Institutions, Beds in Health Institutions, Health Professionals and Outpatient Visits were -0.116, -0.012, 0.038, and 0.111, respectively. Gini coefficient for the 31 provinces varied between 0.05 and 0.43; out of these 23 (742%) were observed to be technically efficient constituting the “best practice frontier”. The other 8 (25.8%) provinces were technically inefficient. Conclusions Health professionals and outpatient services are focused on higher income levels, while the Health Institutions and Beds in Health Institutions were concentrated on lower income levels. In China, a few provinces attained a basic balance in both equity and efficiency in terms of current health resource and service utilization, thus serving as a reference standard for other provinces. PMID:26679187

Study on Equity and Efficiency of Health Resources and Services Based on Key Indicators in China.

PubMed

Zhang, Xinyu; Zhao, Lin; Cui, Zhuang; Wang, Yaogang

2015-01-01

This study aims to evaluate the dialectical relationship between equity and efficiency of health resource allocation and health service utilization in China. We analyzed the inequity of health resource allocation and health service utilization based on concentration index (CI) and Gini coefficient. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to evaluate the inefficiency of resource allocation and service utilization. Factor Analysis (FA) was used to determine input/output indicators. The CI of Health Institutions, Beds in Health Institutions, Health Professionals and Outpatient Visits were -0.116, -0.012, 0.038, and 0.111, respectively. Gini coefficient for the 31 provinces varied between 0.05 and 0.43; out of these 23 (742%) were observed to be technically efficient constituting the "best practice frontier". The other 8 (25.8%) provinces were technically inefficient. Health professionals and outpatient services are focused on higher income levels, while the Health Institutions and Beds in Health Institutions were concentrated on lower income levels. In China, a few provinces attained a basic balance in both equity and efficiency in terms of current health resource and service utilization, thus serving as a reference standard for other provinces.

The management and design of economic development projects: A case study of World Bank electricity projects in Egypt

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

El Sabaa, S.M.

1992-01-01

This study is concerned with the efficiency of World Bank projects in Egypt. The study seeks improvements in the methods of evaluating public sector projects in Egypt. To approaches are employed: (1) project identification to optimally allocate Egypt's and World Bank's resources; (2) project appraisal to assess the economic viability and efficiency of investments. The electricity sector is compared with the agriculture sector as a means of employing project identification for priority ordering of investment for development in Egypt. The key criteria for evaluation are the impacts of developments of each sector upon Egypt's national objectives and needs. These includemore » employment opportunities, growth, alleviation of poverty, cross comparison of per capita consumption in each sector, economic rate of return, national security, balance of payments and foreign debt. The allocation of scarce investments would have been more efficient in agriculture than in electricity in meeting Egypt's national objectives and needs. World Bank lending programs in Egypt reveal a priority ordering of electricity over agriculture and rural development. World Bank development projects in Egypt have not been optimally identified, and its programs have not followed an efficient allocation of World Bank's and Egypt's resources. The key parameters in evaluating economic viability and efficiency of development projects are: (1) the discount rate (the opportunity cost of public funds); (2) the exchange rate; and (3) the cost of major inputs, as approximated by shadow prices of labor, water, electricity, and transportation for development projects. Alternative approaches to estimating the opportunity cost of public funds are made. The parameters in evaluating the efficiency of projects have not been accurately estimated in the appraisal stage of the World Bank projects in Egypt, resulting in false or misleading information concerning the economic viability and efficiency of the projects.« less

A framework for performance measurement in university using extended network data envelopment analysis (DEA) structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kashim, Rosmaini; Kasim, Maznah Mat; Rahman, Rosshairy Abd

2015-12-01

Measuring university performance is essential for efficient allocation and utilization of educational resources. In most of the previous studies, performance measurement in universities emphasized the operational efficiency and resource utilization without investigating the university's ability to fulfill the needs of its stakeholders and society. Therefore, assessment of the performance of university should be separated into two stages namely efficiency and effectiveness. In conventional DEA analysis, a decision making unit (DMU) or in this context, a university is generally treated as a black-box which ignores the operation and interdependence of the internal processes. When this happens, the results obtained would be misleading. Thus, this paper suggest an alternative framework for measuring the overall performance of a university by incorporating both efficiency and effectiveness and applies network DEA model. The network DEA models are recommended because this approach takes into account the interrelationship between the processes of efficiency and effectiveness in the system. This framework also focuses on the university structure which is expanded from the hierarchical to form a series of horizontal relationship between subordinate units by assuming both intermediate unit and its subordinate units can generate output(s). Three conceptual models are proposed to evaluate the performance of a university. An efficiency model is developed at the first stage by using hierarchical network model. It is followed by an effectiveness model which take output(s) from the hierarchical structure at the first stage as a input(s) at the second stage. As a result, a new overall performance model is proposed by combining both efficiency and effectiveness models. Thus, once this overall model is realized and utilized, the university's top management can determine the overall performance of each unit more accurately and systematically. Besides that, the result from the network DEA model can give a superior benchmarking power over the conventional models.

NREL: News - 15 Home Builders Earn Energyvalue Awards

Science.gov Websites

builders who voluntarily integrate energy and resource efficiency into the design, construction and successful approaches to resource-efficient construction. The 2002 EVHA winners are: Tierra Concrete Homes , Sioux City, IA Artistic Homes, Albuquerque, NM Chuck Miller Construction, Hidden Springs ID Enviro

Efficiently Maintaining a National Resource of Historical and Contemporary Biological Collections: The NHLBI Biorepository Model.

PubMed

Shea, Katheryn E; Wagner, Elizabeth L; Marchesani, Leah; Meagher, Kevin; Giffen, Carol

2017-02-01

Reducing costs by improving storage efficiency has been a focus of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Biologic Specimen Repository (Biorepository) and Biologic Specimen and Data Repositories Information Coordinating Center (BioLINCC) programs for several years. Study specimen profiles were compiled using the BioLINCC collection catalog. Cost assessments and calculations on the return on investments to consolidate or reduce a collection, were developed and implemented. Over the course of 8 months, the NHLBI Biorepository evaluated 35 collections that consisted of 1.8 million biospecimens. A total of 23 collections were selected for consolidation, with a total of 1.2 million specimens located in 21,355 storage boxes. The consolidation resulted in a savings of 4055 boxes of various sizes and 10.2 mechanical freezers (∼275 cubic feet) worth of space. As storage costs in a biorepository increase over time, the development and use of information technology tools to assess the potential advantage and feasiblity of vial consolidation can reduce maintenance expenses.

Solar energy development and application in Japan - An outsiders assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knopp, E.

1982-04-01

The Sunshine Project was initiated in Japan in 1974 in order to develop energy resources to meet future needs. The solar program consists of three categories; solar home construction, the construction and operation of a 1000 kWe capacity solar thermal power generation plant, and the development of a photovoltaic system with a cost per watt reduced to 1/100 of the present cost. Low interest loans to promote the use of solar systems have resulted in the installation of one million solar collectors. Solar water heaters produced have a 2 sq m collection area and a 200 liters water storage capacity, and an evacuated tube collector with an efficiency of 64% has been developed. Work is being devoted to the production of a 50 times concentrating tracking circular Fresnel-type photovoltaic device, and a solar driven cooling system with a 5.35 kW capacity, which operates with a highly efficient freon vapor expander, has been developed. The problem of collected heat storage is being tested and assessed.

Comparative analysis of gas and coal-fired power generation in ultra-low emission condition using life cycle assessment (LCA)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yin, Libao; Liao, Yanfen; Liu, Guicai; Liu, Zhichao; Yu, Zhaosheng; Guo, Shaode; Ma, Xiaoqian

2017-05-01

Energy consumption and pollutant emission of natural gas combined cycle power-generation (NGCC), liquefied natural gas combined cycle power-generation (LNGCC), natural gas combined heat and power generation (CHP) and ultra-supercritical power generation with ultra-low gas emission (USC) were analyzed using life cycle assessment method, pointing out the development opportunity and superiority of gas power generation in the period of coal-fired unit ultra-low emission transformation. The results show that CO2 emission followed the order: USC>LNGCC>NGCC>CHP the resource depletion coefficient of coal-fired power generation was lower than that of gas power generation, and the coal-fired power generation should be the main part of power generation in China; based on sensitivity analysis, improving the generating efficiency or shortening the transportation distance could effectively improve energy saving and emission reduction, especially for the coal-fired units, and improving the generating efficiency had a great significance for achieving the ultra-low gas emission.

Frontopolar cortex and decision-making efficiency: comparing brain activity of experts with different professional background during an exploration-exploitation task.

PubMed

Laureiro-Martínez, Daniella; Canessa, Nicola; Brusoni, Stefano; Zollo, Maurizio; Hare, Todd; Alemanno, Federica; Cappa, Stefano F

2013-01-01

An optimal balance between efficient exploitation of available resources and creative exploration of alternatives is critical for adaptation and survival. Previous studies associated these behavioral drives with, respectively, the dopaminergic mesocorticolimbic system and frontopolar-intraparietal networks. We study the activation of these systems in two age and gender-matched groups of experienced decision-makers differing in prior professional background, with the aim to understand the neural bases of individual differences in decision-making efficiency (performance divided by response time). We compare brain activity of entrepreneurs (who currently manage the organization they founded based on their venture idea) and managers (who are constantly involved in making strategic decisions but have no venture experience) engaged in a gambling-task assessing exploitative vs. explorative decision-making. Compared with managers, entrepreneurs showed higher decision-making efficiency, and a stronger activation in regions of frontopolar cortex (FPC) previously associated with explorative choice. Moreover, activity across a network of regions previously linked to explore/exploit tradeoffs explained individual differences in choice efficiency. These results suggest new avenues for the study of individual differences in the neural antecedents of efficient decision-making.

Frontopolar cortex and decision-making efficiency: comparing brain activity of experts with different professional background during an exploration-exploitation task

PubMed Central

Laureiro-Martínez, Daniella; Canessa, Nicola; Brusoni, Stefano; Zollo, Maurizio; Hare, Todd; Alemanno, Federica; Cappa, Stefano F.

2014-01-01

An optimal balance between efficient exploitation of available resources and creative exploration of alternatives is critical for adaptation and survival. Previous studies associated these behavioral drives with, respectively, the dopaminergic mesocorticolimbic system and frontopolar-intraparietal networks. We study the activation of these systems in two age and gender-matched groups of experienced decision-makers differing in prior professional background, with the aim to understand the neural bases of individual differences in decision-making efficiency (performance divided by response time). We compare brain activity of entrepreneurs (who currently manage the organization they founded based on their venture idea) and managers (who are constantly involved in making strategic decisions but have no venture experience) engaged in a gambling-task assessing exploitative vs. explorative decision-making. Compared with managers, entrepreneurs showed higher decision-making efficiency, and a stronger activation in regions of frontopolar cortex (FPC) previously associated with explorative choice. Moreover, activity across a network of regions previously linked to explore/exploit tradeoffs explained individual differences in choice efficiency. These results suggest new avenues for the study of individual differences in the neural antecedents of efficient decision-making. PMID:24478664

Emergy-based assessment on industrial symbiosis: a case of Shenyang Economic and Technological Development Zone.

PubMed

Geng, Yong; Liu, Zuoxi; Xue, Bing; Dong, Huijuan; Fujita, Tsuyoshi; Chiu, Anthony

2014-12-01

Industrial symbiosis is the sharing of services, utility, and by-product resources among industries. This is usually made in order to add value, reduce costs, and improve the environment, and therefore has been taken as an effective approach for developing an eco-industrial park, improving resource efficiency, and reducing pollutant emission. Most conventional evaluation approaches ignored the contribution of natural ecosystem to the development of industrial symbiosis and cannot reveal the interrelations between economic development and environmental protection, leading to a need of an innovative evaluation method. Under such a circumstance, we present an emergy analysis-based evaluation method by employing a case study at Shenyang Economic and Technological Development Zone (SETDZ). Specific emergy indicators on industrial symbiosis, including emergy savings and emdollar value of total emergy savings, were developed so that the holistic picture of industrial symbiosis can be presented. Research results show that nonrenewable inputs, imported resource inputs, and associated services could be saved by 89.3, 32.51, and 15.7 %, and the ratio of emergy savings to emergy of the total energy used would be about 25.58 %, and the ratio of the emdollar value of total emergy savings to the total gross regional product (GRP) of SETDZ would be 34.38 % through the implementation of industrial symbiosis. In general, research results indicate that industrial symbiosis could effectively reduce material and energy consumption and improve the overall eco-efficiency. Such a method can provide policy insights to industrial park managers so that they can raise appropriate strategies on developing eco-industrial parks. Useful strategies include identifying more potential industrial symbiosis opportunities, optimizing energy structure, increasing industrial efficiency, recovering local ecosystems, and improving public and industrial awareness of eco-industrial park policies.

Assssment and Mapping of the Riverine Hydrokinetic Resource in the Continental United States

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jacobson, Paul T.; Ravens, Thomas M.; Cunningham, Keith W.

2012-12-14

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funded the Electric Power Research Institute and its collaborative partners, University of Alaska ? Anchorage, University of Alaska ? Fairbanks, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, to provide an assessment of the riverine hydrokinetic resource in the continental United States. The assessment benefited from input obtained during two workshops attended by individuals with relevant expertise and from a National Research Council panel commissioned by DOE to provide guidance to this and other concurrent, DOE-funded assessments of water based renewable energy. These sources of expertise provided valuable advice regarding data sources and assessment methodology. Themore » assessment of the hydrokinetic resource in the 48 contiguous states is derived from spatially-explicit data contained in NHDPlus ?a GIS-based database containing river segment-specific information on discharge characteristics and channel slope. 71,398 river segments with mean annual flow greater than 1,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) mean discharge were included in the assessment. Segments with discharge less than 1,000 cfs were dropped from the assessment, as were river segments with hydroelectric dams. The results for the theoretical and technical resource in the 48 contiguous states were found to be relatively insensitive to the cutoff chosen. Raising the cutoff to 1,500 cfs had no effect on estimate of the technically recoverable resource, and the theoretical resource was reduced by 5.3%. The segment-specific theoretical resource was estimated from these data using the standard hydrological engineering equation that relates theoretical hydraulic power (Pth, Watts) to discharge (Q, m3 s-1) and hydraulic head or change in elevation (??, m) over the length of the segment, where ? is the specific weight of water (9800 N m-3): ??? = ? ? ?? For Alaska, which is not encompassed by NPDPlus, hydraulic head and discharge data were manually obtained from Idaho National Laboratory?s Virtual Hydropower Prospector, Google Earth, and U.S. Geological Survey gages. Data were manually obtained for the eleven largest rivers with average flow rates greater than 10,000 cfs and the resulting estimate of the theoretical resource was expanded to include rivers with discharge between 1,000 cfs and 10,000 cfs based upon the contribution of rivers in the latter flow class to the total estimate in the contiguous 48 states. Segment-specific theoretical resource was aggregated by major hydrologic region in the contiguous, lower 48 states and totaled 1,146 TWh/yr. The aggregate estimate of the Alaska theoretical resource is 235 TWh/yr, yielding a total theoretical resource estimate of 1,381 TWh/yr for the continental US. The technically recoverable resource in the contiguous 48 states was estimated by applying a recovery factor to the segment-specific theoretical resource estimates. The recovery factor scales the theoretical resource for a given segment to take into account assumptions such as minimum required water velocity and depth during low flow conditions, maximum device packing density, device efficiency, and flow statistics (e.g., the 5 percentile flow relative to the average flow rate). The recovery factor also takes account of ?back effects? ? feedback effects of turbine presence on hydraulic head and velocity. The recovery factor was determined over a range of flow rates and slopes using the hydraulic model, HEC-RAS. In the hydraulic modeling, presence of turbines was accounted for by adjusting the Manning coefficient. This analysis, which included 32 scenarios, led to an empirical function relating recovery factor to slope and discharge. Sixty-nine percent of NHDPlus segments included in the theoretical resource estimate for the contiguous 48 states had an estimated recovery factor of zero. For Alaska, data on river slope was not readily available; hence, the recovery factor was estimated based on the flow rate alone. Segment-specific estimates of the theoretical resource were multiplied by the corresponding recovery factor to estimate the technically recoverable resource. The resulting technically recoverable resource estimate for the continental United States is 120 TWh/yr.« less

Controlling for exogenous environmental variables when using data envelopment analysis for regional environmental assessments.

PubMed

Macpherson, Alexander J; Principe, Peter P; Shao, Yang

2013-04-15

Researchers are increasingly using data envelopment analysis (DEA) to examine the efficiency of environmental policies and resource allocations. An assumption of the basic DEA model is that decisionmakers operate within homogeneous environments. But, this assumption is not valid when environmental performance is influenced by variables beyond managerial control. Understanding the influence of these variables is important to distinguish between characterizing environmental conditions and identifying opportunities to improve environmental performance. While environmental assessments often focus on characterizing conditions, the point of using DEA is to identify opportunities to improve environmental performance and thereby prevent (or rectify) an inefficient allocation of resources. We examine the role of exogenous variables such as climate, hydrology, and topography in producing environmental impacts such as deposition, runoff, invasive species, and forest fragmentation within the United States Mid-Atlantic region. We apply a four-stage procedure to adjust environmental impacts in a DEA model that seeks to minimize environmental impacts while obtaining given levels of socioeconomic outcomes. The approach creates a performance index that bundles multiple indicators while adjusting for variables that are outside management control, offering numerous advantages for environmental assessment. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

43 CFR 3280.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT (3000) GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES UNIT AGREEMENTS Geothermal Resources... resulting in: (1) Diligent development; (2) Efficient exploration, production and utilization of the resource; (3) Conservation of natural resources; and (4) Prevention of waste. Reasonably proven to produce...

43 CFR 3280.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT (3000) GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES UNIT AGREEMENTS Geothermal Resources... resulting in: (1) Diligent development; (2) Efficient exploration, production and utilization of the resource; (3) Conservation of natural resources; and (4) Prevention of waste. Reasonably proven to produce...

43 CFR 3280.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT (3000) GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES UNIT AGREEMENTS Geothermal Resources... resulting in: (1) Diligent development; (2) Efficient exploration, production and utilization of the resource; (3) Conservation of natural resources; and (4) Prevention of waste. Reasonably proven to produce...

43 CFR 3280.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT (3000) GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES UNIT AGREEMENTS Geothermal Resources... resulting in: (1) Diligent development; (2) Efficient exploration, production and utilization of the resource; (3) Conservation of natural resources; and (4) Prevention of waste. Reasonably proven to produce...

Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers for Jasminum sambac (Oleaceae) using Illumina shotgun sequencing1

PubMed Central

Li, Yong; Zhang, Weirui

2015-01-01

Premise of the study: Microsatellite markers of Jasminum sambac (Oleaceae) were isolated to investigate wild germplasm resources and provide markers for breeding. Methods and Results: Illumina sequencing was used to isolate microsatellite markers from the transcriptome of J. sambac. A total of 1322 microsatellites were identified from 49,772 assembled unigenes. One hundred primer pairs were randomly selected to verify primer amplification efficiency. Out of these tested primer pairs, 31 were successfully amplified: 18 primer pairs yielded a single allele, seven exhibited fixed heterozygosity with two alleles, and only six displayed polymorphisms. Conclusions: This study obtained the first set of microsatellite markers for J. sambac, which will be helpful for the assessment of wild germplasm resources and the development of molecular marker–assisted breeding. PMID:26504683

MIUS community conceptual design study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fulbright, B. E.

1976-01-01

The feasibility, practicality, and applicability of the modular integrated utility systems (MIUS) concept to a satellite new-community development with a population of approximately 100,000 were analyzed. Two MIUS design options, the 29-MIUS-unit (option 1) and the 8-MIUS-unit (option 2) facilities were considered. Each resulted in considerable resource savings when compared to a conventional utility system. Economic analyses indicated that the total cash outlay and operations and maintenance costs for these two options were considerably less than for a conventional system. Computer analyses performed in support of this study provided corroborative data for the study group. An environmental impact assessment was performed to determine whether the MIUS meets or will meet necessary environmental standards. The MIUS can provide improved efficiency in the conservation of natural resources while not adversely affecting the physical environment.

A cost-effectiveness analysis of two different antimicrobial stewardship programs.

PubMed

Okumura, Lucas Miyake; Riveros, Bruno Salgado; Gomes-da-Silva, Monica Maria; Veroneze, Izelandia

2016-01-01

There is a lack of formal economic analysis to assess the efficiency of antimicrobial stewardship programs. Herein, we conducted a cost-effectiveness study to assess two different strategies of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs. A 30-day Markov model was developed to analyze how cost-effective was a Bundled Antimicrobial Stewardship implemented in a university hospital in Brazil. Clinical data derived from a historical cohort that compared two different strategies of antimicrobial stewardship programs and had 30-day mortality as main outcome. Selected costs included: workload, cost of defined daily doses, length of stay, laboratory and imaging resources used to diagnose infections. Data were analyzed by deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis to assess model's robustness, tornado diagram and Cost-Effectiveness Acceptability Curve. Bundled Strategy was more expensive (Cost difference US$ 2119.70), however, it was more efficient (US$ 27,549.15 vs 29,011.46). Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis suggested that critical variables did not alter final Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio. Bundled Strategy had higher probabilities of being cost-effective, which was endorsed by cost-effectiveness acceptability curve. As health systems claim for efficient technologies, this study conclude that Bundled Antimicrobial Stewardship Program was more cost-effective, which means that stewardship strategies with such characteristics would be of special interest in a societal and clinical perspective. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Balancing Area Coordination: Efficiently Integrating Renewable Energy Into the Grid, Greening the Grid

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Katz, Jessica; Denholm, Paul; Cochran, Jaquelin

2015-06-01

Greening the Grid provides technical assistance to energy system planners, regulators, and grid operators to overcome challenges associated with integrating variable renewable energy into the grid. Coordinating balancing area operation can promote more cost and resource efficient integration of variable renewable energy, such as wind and solar, into power systems. This efficiency is achieved by sharing or coordinating balancing resources and operating reserves across larger geographic boundaries.

Efficient Resources Provisioning Based on Load Forecasting in Cloud

PubMed Central

Hu, Rongdong; Jiang, Jingfei; Liu, Guangming; Wang, Lixin

2014-01-01

Cloud providers should ensure QoS while maximizing resources utilization. One optimal strategy is to timely allocate resources in a fine-grained mode according to application's actual resources demand. The necessary precondition of this strategy is obtaining future load information in advance. We propose a multi-step-ahead load forecasting method, KSwSVR, based on statistical learning theory which is suitable for the complex and dynamic characteristics of the cloud computing environment. It integrates an improved support vector regression algorithm and Kalman smoother. Public trace data taken from multitypes of resources were used to verify its prediction accuracy, stability, and adaptability, comparing with AR, BPNN, and standard SVR. Subsequently, based on the predicted results, a simple and efficient strategy is proposed for resource provisioning. CPU allocation experiment indicated it can effectively reduce resources consumption while meeting service level agreements requirements. PMID:24701160

Generation and Validation of Spatial Distribution of Hourly Wind Speed Time-Series using Machine Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veronesi, F.; Grassi, S.

2016-09-01

Wind resource assessment is a key aspect of wind farm planning since it allows to estimate the long term electricity production. Moreover, wind speed time-series at high resolution are helpful to estimate the temporal changes of the electricity generation and indispensable to design stand-alone systems, which are affected by the mismatch of supply and demand. In this work, we present a new generalized statistical methodology to generate the spatial distribution of wind speed time-series, using Switzerland as a case study. This research is based upon a machine learning model and demonstrates that statistical wind resource assessment can successfully be used for estimating wind speed time-series. In fact, this method is able to obtain reliable wind speed estimates and propagate all the sources of uncertainty (from the measurements to the mapping process) in an efficient way, i.e. minimizing computational time and load. This allows not only an accurate estimation, but the creation of precise confidence intervals to map the stochasticity of the wind resource for a particular site. The validation shows that machine learning can minimize the bias of the wind speed hourly estimates. Moreover, for each mapped location this method delivers not only the mean wind speed, but also its confidence interval, which are crucial data for planners.

Innovative newborn health technology for resource-limited environments.

PubMed

Thairu, L; Wirth, M; Lunze, K

2013-01-01

To review medical devices addressing newborn health in resource-poor settings, and to identify existing and potential barriers to their actual and efficient use in these settings. We searched Pubmed as our principal electronic reference library and dedicated databases such as Maternova and the Maternal and Neonatal Directed Assessment of Technology. We also researched standard public search engines. Studies and grey literature reports describing devices for use in a low- or middle-income country context were eligible for inclusion. Few devices are currently described in the peer-reviewed medical or public health literature. The majority of newborn-specific devices were found in the grey literature. Most sources described infant warmers, neonatal resuscitators, and phototherapy devices. Other devices address the diagnosis of infectious diseases, monitoring of oxygen saturation, assisted ventilation, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, assisted childbirth, weight or temperature assessment, and others. Many medical devices designed for newborns in the developing world are under development or in the early stages of production, but the vast majority of them are not available when and where they are needed. Making them available to mothers, newborns, and birth attendants in resource-limited countries at the time and place of birth will require innovative and creative production, distribution, and implementation approaches. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Interplay between r- and K-strategists leads to phytoplankton underyielding under pulsed resource supply.

PubMed

Papanikolopoulou, Lydia A; Smeti, Evangelia; Roelke, Daniel L; Dimitrakopoulos, Panayiotis G; Kokkoris, Giorgos D; Danielidis, Daniel B; Spatharis, Sofie

2018-03-01

Fluctuations in nutrient ratios over seasonal scales in aquatic ecosystems can result in overyielding, a condition arising when complementary life-history traits of coexisting phytoplankton species enables more complete use of resources. However, when nutrient concentrations fluctuate under short-period pulsed resource supply, the role of complementarity is less understood. We explore this using the framework of Resource Saturation Limitation Theory (r-strategists vs. K-strategists) to interpret findings from laboratory experiments. For these experiments, we isolated dominant species from a natural assemblage, stabilized to a state of coexistence in the laboratory and determined life-history traits for each species, important to categorize its competition strategy. Then, using monocultures we determined maximum biomass density under pulsed resource supply. These same conditions of resource supply were used with polycultures comprised of combinations of the isolated species. Our focal species were consistent of either r- or K-strategies and the biomass production achieved in monocultures depended on their efficiency to convert resources to biomass. For these species, the K-strategists were less efficient resource users. This affected biomass production in polycultures, which were characteristic of underyielding. In polycultures, K-strategists sequestered more resources than the r-strategists. This likely occurred because the intermittent periods of nutrient limitation that would have occurred just prior to the next nutrient supply pulse would have favored the K-strategists, leading to overall less efficient use of resources by the polyculture. This study provides evidence that fluctuation in resource concentrations resulting from pulsed resource supplies in aquatic ecosystems can result in phytoplankton assemblages' underyielding.

Mathematical programming for the efficient allocation of health care resources.

PubMed

Stinnett, A A; Paltiel, A D

1996-10-01

Previous discussions of methods for the efficient allocation of health care resources subject to a budget constraint have relied on unnecessarily restrictive assumptions. This paper makes use of established optimization techniques to demonstrate that a general mathematical programming framework can accommodate much more complex information regarding returns to scale, partial and complete indivisibility and program interdependence. Methods are also presented for incorporating ethical constraints into the resource allocation process, including explicit identification of the cost of equity.

Heart failure in primary care: co-morbidity and utilization of health care resources.

PubMed

Carmona, Montserrat; García-Olmos, Luis M; García-Sagredo, Pilar; Alberquilla, Ángel; López-Rodríguez, Fernando; Pascual, Mario; Muñoz, Adolfo; Salvador, Carlos H; Monteagudo, José L; Otero-Puime, Ángel

2013-10-01

In order to ensure proper management of primary care (PC) services, the efficiency of the health professionals tasked with such services must be known. Patients with heart failure (HF) are characterized by advanced age, high co-morbidity and high resource utilization. To ascertain PC resource utilization by HF patients and variability in the management of such patients by GPs. Descriptive, cross-sectional study targeting a population attended by 129 GPs over the course of 1 year. All patients with diagnosis of HF in their clinical histories were included, classified using the Adjusted Clinical Group system and then grouped into six resource utilization bands (RUBs). Resource utilization and Efficiency Index were both calculated. One hundred per cent of patients with HF were ranked in RUBs 3, 4 and 5. The highest GP visit rate was 20 and the lowest in excess of 10 visits per year. Prescription drug costs for these patients ranged from €885 to €1422 per patient per year. Health professional efficiency varied notably, even after adjustment for co-morbidity (Efficiency Index Variation Ratio of 28.27 for visits and 404.29 for prescription drug cost). Patients with HF register a high utilization of resources, and there is great variability in the management of such patients by health professionals, which cannot be accounted for by the degree of case complexity.

The person with a spinal cord injury: an evolving prototype for life care planning.

PubMed

Stiens, Steven A; Fawber, Heidi L; Yuhas, Steven A

2013-08-01

The sequela of spinal cord injury (SCI) can provide a prototype for life care planning because the segmental design of the vertebrate body allows assessments to be quantitative, repeatable, and predictive of the injured person's impairments, self-care capabilities, and required assistance. Life care planning for patients with SCI uses a standard method that is comparable between planner, yet individualizes assessment and seeks resources that meet unique patient-centered needs in their communities of choice. Clinical care and rehabilitation needs organized with an SCI problem list promotes collaboration by the interdisciplinary team, caregivers, and family in efficient achievement of patient-centered goals and completion of daily care plans. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Portable Diagnostics Technology Assessment for Space Missions. Part 2; Market Survey

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nelson, Emily S.; Chait, Arnon

2010-01-01

A mission to Mars of several years duration requires more demanding standards for all onboard instruments than a 6-month mission to the Moon or the International Space Station. In Part 1, we evaluated generic technologies and suitability to NASA needs. This prior work considered crew safety, device maturity and flightworthiness, resource consumption, and medical value. In Part 2, we continue the study by assessing the current marketplace for reliable Point-of-Care diagnostics. The ultimate goal of this project is to provide a set of objective analytical tools to suggest efficient strategies for reaching specific medical targets for any given space mission as program needs, technological development, and scientific understanding evolve.

Ranger's Legacy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1987-01-01

With its Landsat satellites, development of sensors, and advancement of processing techniques, NASA provided the initial technology base for another Earth-benefit application of image processing, Earth resources survey by means of remote sensing. Since each object has its own unique "signature," it is possible to distinguish among surface features and to generate computer-processed imagery identifying specific features of importance to resource managers. This capability, commercialized by Perceptive Scientific Instruments, Inc., offers practical application in such areas as agricultural crop forecasting, rangeland and forest management, land use planning, mineral and petroleum exploration, map making, water quality evaluation and disaster assessment. Major users of the technology have been federal, state, and local governments, but it is making its way into commercial operations, for example, resource exploration companies looking for oil, gas and mineral sources, and timber production firms seeking more efficient treeland management. Supporting both government and private users is a small industry composed of companies producing the processing hardware software. As is the case in the medical application, many of these companies are direct offspring of NASA's work.

Cost Evaluation of a Government-Conducted Oral Cholera Vaccination Campaign-Haiti, 2013.

PubMed

Routh, Janell A; Sreenivasan, Nandini; Adhikari, Bishwa B; Andrecy, Lesly L; Bernateau, Margarette; Abimbola, Taiwo; Njau, Joseph; Jackson, Ernsley; Juin, Stanley; Francois, Jeannot; Tohme, Rania A; Meltzer, Martin I; Katz, Mark A; Mintz, Eric D

2017-10-01

The devastating 2010 cholera epidemic in Haiti prompted the government to introduce oral cholera vaccine (OCV) in two high-risk areas of Haiti. We evaluated the direct costs associated with the government's first vaccine campaign implemented in August-September 2013. We analyzed data for major cost categories and assessed the efficiency of available campaign resources to vaccinate the target population. For a target population of 107,906 persons, campaign costs totaled $624,000 and 215,295 OCV doses were dispensed. The total vaccine and operational cost was $2.90 per dose; vaccine alone cost $1.85 per dose, vaccine delivery and administration $0.70 per dose, and vaccine storage and transport $0.35 per dose. Resources were greater than needed-our analyses suggested that approximately 2.5-6 times as many persons could have been vaccinated during this campaign without increasing the resources allocated for vaccine delivery and administration. These results can inform future OCV campaigns in Haiti.

Optimally managing water resources in large river basins for an uncertain future

USGS Publications Warehouse

Roehl, Edwin A.; Conrads, Paul

2014-01-01

One of the challenges of basin management is the optimization of water use through ongoing regional economic development, droughts, and climate change. This paper describes a model of the Savannah River Basin designed to continuously optimize regulated flow to meet prioritized objectives set by resource managers and stakeholders. The model was developed from historical data by using machine learning, making it more accurate and adaptable to changing conditions than traditional models. The model is coupled to an optimization routine that computes the daily flow needed to most efficiently meet the water-resource management objectives. The model and optimization routine are packaged in a decision support system that makes it easy for managers and stakeholders to use. Simulation results show that flow can be regulated to substantially reduce salinity intrusions in the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge while conserving more water in the reservoirs. A method for using the model to assess the effectiveness of the flow-alteration features after the deepening also is demonstrated.

Geomorphologic and geologic overview for water resources development: Kharit basin, Eastern Desert, Egypt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mosaad, Sayed

2017-10-01

This study demonstrates the importance of geomorphologic, geologic and hydrogeologic assessment as an efficient approach for water resources development in the Kharit watershed. Kharit is one of largest watersheds in the Eastern Desert that lacks water for agricultural and drinking purposes, for the nomadic communities. This study aims to identify and evaluate the geomorphologic, geologic and hydrogeologic conditions in the Kharit watershed relative to water resource development using remote sensing and GIS techniques. The results reveal that the watershed contains 15 sub-basins and morphometric analyses show high probability for flash floods. These hazards can be managed by constructing earth dikes and masonry dams to minimize damage from flash floods and allow recharge of water to shallow groundwater aquifers. The Quaternary deposits and the Nubian sandstone have moderate to high infiltration rates and are relatively well drained, facilitating surface runoff and deep percolation into the underlying units. The sediments cover 54% of the watershed area and have high potential for groundwater extraction.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu, P.Y.; Wassom, J.S.

Scientific and technological developments bring unprecedented stress to our environment. Society has to predict the results of potential health risks from technologically based actions that may have serious, far-reaching consequences. The potential for error in making such predictions or assessment is great and multiplies with the increasing size and complexity of the problem being studied. Because of this, the availability and use of reliable data is the key to any successful forecasting effort. Scientific research and development generate new data and information. Much of the scientific data being produced daily is stored in computers for subsequent analysis. This situation providesmore » both an invaluable resource and an enormous challenge. With large amounts of government funds being devoted to health and environmental research programs and with maintenance of our living environment at stake, we must make maximum use of the resulting data to forecast and avert catastrophic effects. Along with the readily available. The most efficient means of obtaining the data necessary for assessing the health effects of chemicals is to utilize applications include the toxicology databases and information files developed at ORNL. To make most efficient use of the data/information that has already been prepared, attention and resources should be directed toward projects that meticulously evaluate the available data/information and create specialized peer-reviewed value-added databases. Such projects include the National Library of Medicine`s Hazardous Substances Data Bank, and the U.S. Air Force Installation Restoration Toxicology Guide. These and similar value-added toxicology databases were developed at ORNL and are being maintained and updated. These databases and supporting information files, as well as some data evaluation techniques are discussed in this paper with special focus on how they are used to assess potential health effects of environmental agents. 19 refs., 5 tabs.« less

Lean principles to optimize instrument utilization for spine surgery in an academic medical center: an opportunity to standardize, cut costs, and build a culture of improvement.

PubMed

Lunardini, David; Arington, Richard; Canacari, Elena G; Gamboa, Kelly; Wagner, Katiri; McGuire, Kevin J

2014-09-15

Case study OBJECTIVE.: To optimize the utilization of operating room instruments for orthopedic and neurosurgical spine cases in an urban level 1 academic medical center through application of Lean principles. Process improvement systems such as Lean have been adapted to health care and offer an opportunity for frank assessment of surgical routines to increase efficiency and enhance value. The goal has been to safely reduce the financial burden to the health care system without compromising care and if possible reallocate these resources or gains in efficiency to further improve the value to the patient. The investigators identified instruments as a source of waste in the operating room and proposed a Lean process assessment. The instruments and the instrument processing workflow were described. An audit documented the utilization of each instrument by orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons through observation of spine cases. The data were then presented to the stakeholders, including surgeons, the perioperative director, and representatives from nursing, central processing, and the surgical technicians. Of the 38 cases audited, only 89 (58%) of the instruments were used at least once. On the basis of the data and stakeholder consensus, 63 (41%) of the instruments were removed, resulting in a weight reduction of 17.5 lb and consolidation of 2 instrument sets into 1. Projected cost savings were approximately $41,000 annually. Although new instruments were purchased to standardize sets, the return on investment was estimated to be 2 years. Inefficient surgical routines may comprise significant resource waste in an institution. Process assessment is an important tool in decreasing health care costs, with objectivity provided by Lean or similar principles, and essential impetus to change provided by stakeholders. 4.

[Evaluation of the Oran university hospital information system].

PubMed

Chougrani, Saada; Ouhadj, Salah; Agag, Fouzia

2013-01-01

Oran university hospital has been operating since 2010. It is a public institution that must assess the resources required to achieve institutional goals integrated into the strategic objectives defined in the hospital development project. Implementation of this project could be supported, among other things, by a strong and efficient hospital information system. Three investigations were conducted: 1- evaluation of the hospital information system, 2- assessment of the quality of the hospital discharge summary reports, 3- assessment of the quality of medical records. The six components of the hospital information system (resources, indicators, sources, management, quality and dissemination and use of data) were clearly present but not satisfactory with a score ranging from 25 to 50% of the total score. The scores by component were as follows: 36% for resources, 37% for indicators, 42% for patient records, 19% for data management and 27% for the dissemination of information. The overall completeness of medical records was 85.2%. Completeness by group of variables gave the following results: 66% for medical information, 54% for the patient's stay and 38% for information relating to the patient's discharge. Hospital discharge summary reports were available in 59.8% of cases, but were blank in 4% of cases. The critical variable, the principal diagnosis was found in 51% of cases. The correct principal diagnosis rate was 33.3%. The deficiencies observed for content and data management raise real questions concerning data management at Oran university hospital as part of a real managerial approach.

Productivity Analysis of Public and Private Airports: A Causal Investigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vasigh, Bijan; Gorjidooz, Javad

2007-01-01

Around the world, airports are being viewed as enterprises, rather than public services, which are expected to be managed efficiently and provide passengers with courteous customer services. Governments are, increasingly, turning to the private sectors for their efficiency in managing the operation, financing, and development, as well as providing security for airports. Operational and financial performance evaluation has become increasingly important to airport operators due to recent trends in airport privatization. Assessing performance allows the airport operators to plan for human resources and capital investment as efficiently as possible. Productivity measurements may be used as comparisons and guidelines in strategic planning, in the internal analysis of operational efficiency and effectiveness, and in assessing the competitive position of an airport in transportation industry. The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the operational and financial efficiencies of 22 major airports in the United States and Europe. These airports are divided into three groups based on private ownership (7 British Airport Authority airports), public ownership (8 major United States airports), and a mix of private and public ownership (7 major European Union airports. The detail ownership structures of these airports are presented in Appendix A. Total factor productivity (TFP) model was utilized to measure airport performance in terms of financial and operational efficiencies and to develop a benchmarking tool to identify the areas of strength and weakness. A regression model was then employed to measure the relationship between TFP and ownership structure. Finally a Granger causality test was performed to determine whether ownership structure is a Granger cause of TFP. The results of the analysis presented in this paper demonstrate that there is not a significant relationship between airport TFP and ownership structure. Airport productivity and efficiency is, however dependent upon the level of competition, choice of the market, and regulatory control.

Impact of climate change on river discharge in the Teteriv River basin (Ukraine)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Didovets, Iulii; Lobanova, Anastasia; Krysanova, Valentina; Snizhko, Sergiy; Bronstert, Axel

2016-04-01

The problem of water resources availability in the climate change context arises now in many countries. Ukraine is characterized by a relatively low availability of water resources compared to other countries. It is the 111th among 152 countries by the amount of domestic water resources available per capita. To ensure socio-economic development of the region and to adapt to climate change, a comprehensive assessment of potential changes in qualitative and quantitative characteristics of water resources in the region is needed. The focus of our study is the Teteriv River basin located in northern Ukraine within three administrative districts covering the area of 15,300 km2. The Teteriv is the right largest tributary of the Dnipro River, which is the fourth longest river in Europe. The water resources in the region are intensively used in industry, communal infrastructure, and agriculture. This is evidenced by a large number of dams and industrial objects which have been constructed from the early 20th century. For success of the study, it was necessary to apply a comprehensive hydrological model, tested in similar natural conditions. Therefore, an eco-hydrological model SWIM with the daily time step was applied, as this model was used previously for climate impact assessment in many similar river basins on the European territory. The model was set up, calibrated and validated for the gauge Ivankiv located close to the outlet of the Teteriv River. The Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient for the calibration period is 0.79 (0.86), and percent bias is 4,9% (-3.6%) with the daily (monthly) time step. The future climate scenarios were selected from the IMPRESSIONS (Impacts and Risks from High-End Scenarios: Strategies for Innovative Solutions, www.impressions-project.eu) project, which developed 7 climate scenarios under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 based on GCMs and downscaled using RCMs. The results of climate impact assessment for the Teteriv River basin will be presented.

Scaling up ATLAS Event Service to production levels on opportunistic computing platforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benjamin, D.; Caballero, J.; Ernst, M.; Guan, W.; Hover, J.; Lesny, D.; Maeno, T.; Nilsson, P.; Tsulaia, V.; van Gemmeren, P.; Vaniachine, A.; Wang, F.; Wenaus, T.; ATLAS Collaboration

2016-10-01

Continued growth in public cloud and HPC resources is on track to exceed the dedicated resources available for ATLAS on the WLCG. Examples of such platforms are Amazon AWS EC2 Spot Instances, Edison Cray XC30 supercomputer, backfill at Tier 2 and Tier 3 sites, opportunistic resources at the Open Science Grid (OSG), and ATLAS High Level Trigger farm between the data taking periods. Because of specific aspects of opportunistic resources such as preemptive job scheduling and data I/O, their efficient usage requires workflow innovations provided by the ATLAS Event Service. Thanks to the finer granularity of the Event Service data processing workflow, the opportunistic resources are used more efficiently. We report on our progress in scaling opportunistic resource usage to double-digit levels in ATLAS production.

Resource assessment in Western Australia using a geographic information system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jackson, A.

1991-03-01

Three study areas in Western Australia covering from 77,000 to 425,000 mi{sup 2} were examined for oil and gas potential using a geographic information system (GIS). A data base of source rock thickness, source richness, maturity, and expulsion efficiency was created for each interval. The GIS (Arc/Info) was used to create, manage, and analyze data for each interval in each study area. Source rock thickness and source richness data were added to the data base from digitized data. Maturity information was generated with Arc/Info by combining geochemical and depth to structure data. Expulsion efficiency data was created by a systemmore » level Arc/Info program. After the data base for each interval was built, the GIS was used to analyze the geologic data. The analysis consisted of converting each data layer into a lattice (grid) and using the lattice operation in Arc/Infor (addition, multiplication, division, and subtraction) to combine the data layers. Additional techniques for combining and selecting data were developed using Arc/Info system level programs. The procedure for performing the analyses was written as macros in Arc/Info's macro programming language (AML). The results of the analysis were estimates of oil and gas volumes for each interval. The resultant volumes were produced in tabular form for reports and cartographic form for presentation. The geographic information system provided several clear advantages over traditional methods of resource assessment including simplified management, updating, and editing of geologic data.« less

Design and analysis issues for economic analysis alongside clinical trials.

PubMed

Marshall, Deborah A; Hux, Margaret

2009-07-01

Clinical trials can offer a valuable and efficient opportunity to collect the health resource use and outcomes data for economic evaluation. However, economic and clinical studies differ fundamentally in the question they seek to answer. The design and analysis of trial-based cost-effectiveness studies require special consideration, which are reviewed in this article. Traditional randomized controlled trials, using an experimental design with a controlled protocol, are designed to measure safety and efficacy for product registration. Cost-effectiveness analysis seeks to measure effectiveness in the context of routine clinical practice, and requires collection of health care resources to allow estimation of cost over an equal timeframe for each treatment alternative. In assessing suitability of a trial for economic data collection, the comparator treatment and other protocol factors need to reflect current clinical practice and the trial follow-up must be sufficiently long to capture important costs and effects. The broadest available population and a measure of effectiveness reflecting important benefits for patients are preferred for economic analyses. Special analytical issues include dealing with missing and censored cost data, assessing uncertainty of the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, and accounting for the underlying heterogeneity in patient subgroups. Careful consideration also needs to be given to data from multinational studies since practice patterns can differ across countries. Although clinical trials can be an efficient opportunity to collect data for economic evaluation, careful consideration of the suitability of the study design, and appropriate analytical methods must be applied to obtain rigorous results.

The Conservation Nexus: Valuing Interdependent Water and Energy Savings in Phoenix, Arizona

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chester, M.; Bartos, M.

2013-12-01

Energy and water resources are intrinsically linked, yet they are managed separately--even in the water-scarce American southwest. This study develops a spatially-explicit model of water-energy interdependencies in Arizona, and assesses the potential for co-beneficial conservation programs. Arizona consumes 2.8% of its water demand for thermoelectric power and 8% of its electricity demand for water infrastructure--roughly twice the national average. The interdependent benefits of investments in 7 conservation strategies are assessed. Deployment of irrigation retrofits and new reclaimed water facilities dominate potential water savings, while residential and commercial HVAC improvements dominate energy savings. Water conservation policies have the potential to reduce statewide electricity demand by 1.0-2.9%, satisfying 5-14% of mandated energy-efficiency goals. Likewise, adoption of energy-efficiency measures and renewable generation portfolios can reduce non-agricultural water demand by 2.0-2.6%. These co-benefits of conservation investments are typically not included in conservation plans or benefit-cost analyses. Residential water conservation measures produce significant water and energy savings, but are generally not cost-effective at current water prices. An evaluation of the true cost of water in Arizona would allow future water and energy savings to be compared objectively, and would help policymakers allocate scarce resources to the highest-value conservation measures. Water Transfers between Water Cycle Components in Arizona in 2008 Cumulative embedded energy in water cycle components in Arizona in 2008

US neurologists: attitudes on rationing.

PubMed

Holloway, R G; Ringel, S P; Bernat, J L; Keran, C M; Lawyer, B L

2000-11-28

To assess neurologists' attitudes on rationing health care and to determine whether neurologists would set healthcare priorities in ways that are consistent with cost-effectiveness research. Cost-effectiveness research can suggest ways to maximize health benefits within fixed budgets but is currently being underused in resource allocation decisions. The authors surveyed a random sample of neurologists practicing in the United States (response rate, 44.4%) with three hypothetical scenarios. Two scenarios were designed to address general attitudes on allocating finite resources with emphasis on formulary decisions for costly drugs. The third scenario was designed to assess whether neurologists would optimize the allocation of a fixed budget as recommended by cost-effectiveness analysis. Three-quarters of respondents thought that neurologists make daily decisions that effectively ration healthcare resources, and 60% felt a professional responsibility to consider the financial impact of individualized treatment decisions on other patients. Only 25% of respondents thought that there should be no restrictions placed on any of the five newer antiepileptic agents. In a 1995 survey, 75% of similarly sampled neurologists agreed that no restrictions should be placed on the availability of FDA-approved medications. Nearly half (46%) of respondents favored a less effective test and would be willing to let patients die to ensure the offering of a more equitable alternative. Most neurologists recognize the need to ration health care, and although they think cost-effectiveness research is one method to achieve efficient distribution of resources, many think that considerable attention should also be given to equity.

Hong Kong Hospital Authority resource efficiency evaluation: Via a novel DEA-Malmquist model and Tobit regression model.

PubMed

Guo, Hainan; Zhao, Yang; Niu, Tie; Tsui, Kwok-Leung

2017-01-01

The Hospital Authority (HA) is a statutory body managing all the public hospitals and institutes in Hong Kong (HK). In recent decades, Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HKHA) has been making efforts to improve the healthcare services, but there still exist some problems like unfair resource allocation and poor management, as reported by the Hong Kong medical legislative committee. One critical consequence of these problems is low healthcare efficiency of hospitals, leading to low satisfaction among patients. Moreover, HKHA also suffers from the conflict between limited resource and growing demand. An effective evaluation of HA is important for resource planning and healthcare decision making. In this paper, we propose a two-phase method to evaluate HA efficiency for reducing healthcare expenditure and improving healthcare service. Specifically, in Phase I, we measure the HKHA efficiency changes from 2000 to 2013 by applying a novel DEA-Malmquist index with undesirable factors. In Phase II, we further explore the impact of some exogenous factors (e.g., population density) on HKHA efficiency by Tobit regression model. Empirical results show that there are significant differences between the efficiencies of different hospitals and clusters. In particular, it is found that the public hospital serving in a richer district has a relatively lower efficiency. To a certain extent, this reflects the socioeconomic reality in HK that people with better economic condition prefers receiving higher quality service from the private hospitals.

Hong Kong Hospital Authority resource efficiency evaluation: Via a novel DEA-Malmquist model and Tobit regression model

PubMed Central

Guo, Hainan; Zhao, Yang; Niu, Tie; Tsui, Kwok-Leung

2017-01-01

The Hospital Authority (HA) is a statutory body managing all the public hospitals and institutes in Hong Kong (HK). In recent decades, Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HKHA) has been making efforts to improve the healthcare services, but there still exist some problems like unfair resource allocation and poor management, as reported by the Hong Kong medical legislative committee. One critical consequence of these problems is low healthcare efficiency of hospitals, leading to low satisfaction among patients. Moreover, HKHA also suffers from the conflict between limited resource and growing demand. An effective evaluation of HA is important for resource planning and healthcare decision making. In this paper, we propose a two-phase method to evaluate HA efficiency for reducing healthcare expenditure and improving healthcare service. Specifically, in Phase I, we measure the HKHA efficiency changes from 2000 to 2013 by applying a novel DEA-Malmquist index with undesirable factors. In Phase II, we further explore the impact of some exogenous factors (e.g., population density) on HKHA efficiency by Tobit regression model. Empirical results show that there are significant differences between the efficiencies of different hospitals and clusters. In particular, it is found that the public hospital serving in a richer district has a relatively lower efficiency. To a certain extent, this reflects the socioeconomic reality in HK that people with better economic condition prefers receiving higher quality service from the private hospitals. PMID:28886087

RESULTS FROM THE U.S. DOE 2006 SAVE ENERGY NOW ASSESSMENT INITIATIVE: DOE's Partnership with U.S. Industry to Reduce Energy Consumption, Energy Costs, and Carbon Dioxide Emissions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wright, Anthony L; Martin, Michaela A; Gemmer, Bob

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and other severe storms in 2005, natural gas supplies were restricted, prices rose, and industry sought ways to reduce its natural gas use and costs. In October 2005, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Secretary Bodman launched his Easy Ways to Save Energy campaign with a promise to provide energy assessments to 200 of the largest U.S. manufacturing plants. A major thrust of the campaign was to ensure that the nation's natural gas supplies would be adequate for all Americans, especially during home heating seasons. In a presentation to the National Press Club onmore » October 3, 2005, Secretary Bodman said: 'America's businesses, factories, and manufacturing facilities use massive amounts of energy. To help them during this period of tightening supply and rising costs, our Department is sending teams of qualified efficiency experts to 200 of the nation's most energy-intensive factories. Our Energy Saving Teams will work with on-site managers on ways to conserve energy and use it more efficiently.' DOE's Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) responded to the Secretary's campaign with its Save Energy Now initiative, featuring a new and highly cost-effective form of energy assessments. The approach for these assessments drew heavily on the existing resources of ITP's Technology Delivery component. Over the years, ITP-Technology Delivery had worked with industry partners to assemble a suite of respected software decision tools, proven assessment protocols, training curricula, certified experts, and strong partnerships for deployment. Because of the program's earlier activities and the resources that had been developed, ITP was prepared to respond swiftly and effectively to the sudden need to promote improved industrial energy efficiency. Because of anticipated supply issues in the natural gas sector, the Save Energy Now initiative strategically focused on natural gas savings and targeted the nation's largest manufacturing plants--those that consume a total of 1 trillion British thermal units (Btu) or more annually. The approximately 6800 U.S. facilities that fall into this category collectively account for about 53% of all energy consumed by industry in the United States. The 2006 Save Energy Now energy assessments departed from earlier DOE plant assessments by concentrating solely on steam and process heating systems, which are estimated to account for approximately 74% of all natural gas use for manufacturing. The assessments also integrated a strong training component designed to teach industrial plant personnel how to use DOE's steam or process heating opportunity assessment software tools. This approach had the advantages of promoting strong buy-in of plant personnel for the assessment and its outcomes and preparing them better to independently replicate the assessment process at the company's other facilities. The Save Energy Now initiative also included provisions to help plants that applied for but did not qualify for assessments (based on the 1 trillion Btu criterion). Services offered to these plants included (1) an assessment by one of DOE's 26 university-based Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs), (2) a telephone consultation with a systems expert at the DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Information Center, or (3) other technical materials and services available through ITP (e.g., the Save Energy Now CD). By the end of 2006, DOE had completed all 200 of the promised assessments, identifying potential natural gas savings of more than 50 trillion Btu and energy cost savings of about $500 million. These savings, if fully implemented, could reduce CO2 emissions by 4.04 million metric tons annually. These results, along with the fact that a large percentage of U.S. energy is used by a relatively small number of very large plants, clearly suggest that assessments are an expedient and cost-effective way to significantly affect large amounts of energy use. Building on the success of the 2006 initiative, ITP has expanded the effort in 2007 with the goal of conducting 250 more assessments in large U.S. industrial plants. The 2007 assessments are addressing not only steam and process heating, but also pumping, compressed air, and fan systems. The full report reviews the tools and resources developed by the DOE ITP program before 2006, which are the foundation and catalyst for the Save Energy Now assessment efforts. The report describes the process by which industrial plants applied to obtain assessments in 2006 and the overall process and philosophy of conducting assessments. A comprehensive review of the results from the 2006 assessments is presented, along with a summary of key accomplishments and findings.« less

Cost-effectiveness analysis and efficient use of the pharmaceutical budget: the key role of clinical pharmacologists

PubMed Central

Edlin, Richard; Round, Jeff; Hulme, Claire; McCabe, Christopher

2010-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide information about cost-effectiveness analysis and the roles of clinical pharmacologists generally in providing efficient health care. The paper highlights the potential consequences of ‘off-label prescribing’ and ‘indication creep’ behaviour given slower growth (or potential cuts) in the NHS budget. This paper highlights the key roles of clinical pharmacologists in delivering an efficient health care system when resources are allocated using cost-effectiveness analyses. It describes what cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is and how incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) are used to identify efficient options. After outlining the theoretical framework within which using CEA can promote the efficient allocation of the health care budget, it considers the place of disinvestment within achieving efficient resource allocation. Clinical pharmacologists are argued to be critical to providing improved population health under CEA-based resource allocation processes because of their roles in implementation and disinvestment. Given that the challenges facing the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS) are likely to increase, this paper sets out the stark choices facing clinical pharmacologists. PMID:20716234

Cost-effectiveness analysis and efficient use of the pharmaceutical budget: the key role of clinical pharmacologists.

PubMed

Edlin, Richard; Round, Jeff; Hulme, Claire; McCabe, Christopher

2010-09-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide information about cost-effectiveness analysis and the roles of clinical pharmacologists generally in providing efficient health care. The paper highlights the potential consequences of 'off-label prescribing' and 'indication creep' behaviour given slower growth (or potential cuts) in the NHS budget. This paper highlights the key roles of clinical pharmacologists in delivering an efficient health care system when resources are allocated using cost-effectiveness analyses. It describes what cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is and how incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) are used to identify efficient options. After outlining the theoretical framework within which using CEA can promote the efficient allocation of the health care budget, it considers the place of disinvestment within achieving efficient resource allocation. Clinical pharmacologists are argued to be critical to providing improved population health under CEA-based resource allocation processes because of their roles in implementation and disinvestment. Given that the challenges facing the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS) are likely to increase, this paper sets out the stark choices facing clinical pharmacologists.

An eco-efficient and economical optimum evaluation technique for the forest road networks: the case of the mountainous forest of Metsovo, Greece.

PubMed

Tampekis, Stergios; Samara, Fani; Sakellariou, Stavros; Sfougaris, Athanassios; Christopoulou, Olga

2018-02-12

The sustainable forest management can be achieved only through environmentally sound and economically efficient and feasible forest road networks and transportation systems that can potentially improve the multi-functional use of forest resources. However, road network planning and construction suggest long-term finance that require a capital investment (cash outflow), which would be equal to the value of the total revenue flow (cash inflow) over the whole lifecycle project. This paper emphasizes in an eco-efficient and economical optimum evaluation method for the forest road networks in the mountainous forest of Metsovo, Greece. More specifically, with the use of this technique, we evaluated the forest roads' (a) total construction costs, (b) annual maintenance cost, and (c) log skidding cost. In addition, we estimated the total economic value of forest goods and services that are lost from the forest roads' construction. Finally, we assessed the optimum eco-efficient and economical forest roads densities based on linear equations that stem from the internal rate of return method (IRR) and have been presented graphically. Data analysis and its presentation are achieved with the contribution of geographic information systems (GIS). The technique which is described in this study can be for the decision makers an attractive and useful implement in order to select the most eco-friendly and economical optimum solution to plan forest road network or to evaluate the existing forest transportation systems. Hence, with the use of this method, we can combine not only the multi-objective utilization of natural resources but also the environmental protection of forest ecosystems.

SPATIALLY-BALANCED SAMPLING OF NATURAL RESOURCES

EPA Science Inventory

The spatial distribution of a natural resource is an important consideration in designing an efficient survey or monitoring program for the resource. Generally, sample sites that are spatially-balanced, that is, more or less evenly dispersed over the extent of the resource, will ...

MIROS: A Hybrid Real-Time Energy-Efficient Operating System for the Resource-Constrained Wireless Sensor Nodes

PubMed Central

Liu, Xing; Hou, Kun Mean; de Vaulx, Christophe; Shi, Hongling; Gholami, Khalid El

2014-01-01

Operating system (OS) technology is significant for the proliferation of the wireless sensor network (WSN). With an outstanding OS; the constrained WSN resources (processor; memory and energy) can be utilized efficiently. Moreover; the user application development can be served soundly. In this article; a new hybrid; real-time; memory-efficient; energy-efficient; user-friendly and fault-tolerant WSN OS MIROS is designed and implemented. MIROS implements the hybrid scheduler and the dynamic memory allocator. Real-time scheduling can thus be achieved with low memory consumption. In addition; it implements a mid-layer software EMIDE (Efficient Mid-layer Software for User-Friendly Application Development Environment) to decouple the WSN application from the low-level system. The application programming process can consequently be simplified and the application reprogramming performance improved. Moreover; it combines both the software and the multi-core hardware techniques to conserve the energy resources; improve the node reliability; as well as achieve a new debugging method. To evaluate the performance of MIROS; it is compared with the other WSN OSes (TinyOS; Contiki; SOS; openWSN and mantisOS) from different OS concerns. The final evaluation results prove that MIROS is suitable to be used even on the tight resource-constrained WSN nodes. It can support the real-time WSN applications. Furthermore; it is energy efficient; user friendly and fault tolerant. PMID:25248069

MIROS: a hybrid real-time energy-efficient operating system for the resource-constrained wireless sensor nodes.

PubMed

Liu, Xing; Hou, Kun Mean; de Vaulx, Christophe; Shi, Hongling; El Gholami, Khalid

2014-09-22

Operating system (OS) technology is significant for the proliferation of the wireless sensor network (WSN). With an outstanding OS; the constrained WSN resources (processor; memory and energy) can be utilized efficiently. Moreover; the user application development can be served soundly. In this article; a new hybrid; real-time; memory-efficient; energy-efficient; user-friendly and fault-tolerant WSN OS MIROS is designed and implemented. MIROS implements the hybrid scheduler and the dynamic memory allocator. Real-time scheduling can thus be achieved with low memory consumption. In addition; it implements a mid-layer software EMIDE (Efficient Mid-layer Software for User-Friendly Application Development Environment) to decouple the WSN application from the low-level system. The application programming process can consequently be simplified and the application reprogramming performance improved. Moreover; it combines both the software and the multi-core hardware techniques to conserve the energy resources; improve the node reliability; as well as achieve a new debugging method. To evaluate the performance of MIROS; it is compared with the other WSN OSes (TinyOS; Contiki; SOS; openWSN and mantisOS) from different OS concerns. The final evaluation results prove that MIROS is suitable to be used even on the tight resource-constrained WSN nodes. It can support the real-time WSN applications. Furthermore; it is energy efficient; user friendly and fault tolerant.

Resource use efficiency of closed plant production system with artificial light: Concept, estimation and application to plant factory

PubMed Central

KOZAI, Toyoki

2013-01-01

Extensive research has recently been conducted on plant factory with artificial light, which is one type of closed plant production system (CPPS) consisting of a thermally insulated and airtight structure, a multi-tier system with lighting devices, air conditioners and fans, a CO2 supply unit, a nutrient solution supply unit, and an environment control unit. One of the research outcomes is the concept of resource use efficiency (RUE) of CPPS. This paper reviews the characteristics of the CPPS compared with those of the greenhouse, mainly from the viewpoint of RUE, which is defined as the ratio of the amount of the resource fixed or held in plants to the amount of the resource supplied to the CPPS. It is shown that the use efficiencies of water, CO2 and light energy are considerably higher in the CPPS than those in the greenhouse. On the other hand, there is much more room for improving the light and electric energy use efficiencies of CPPS. Challenging issues for CPPS and RUE are also discussed. PMID:24334509

Resource allocation for epidemic control in metapopulations.

PubMed

Ndeffo Mbah, Martial L; Gilligan, Christopher A

2011-01-01

Deployment of limited resources is an issue of major importance for decision-making in crisis events. This is especially true for large-scale outbreaks of infectious diseases. Little is known when it comes to identifying the most efficient way of deploying scarce resources for control when disease outbreaks occur in different but interconnected regions. The policy maker is frequently faced with the challenge of optimizing efficiency (e.g. minimizing the burden of infection) while accounting for social equity (e.g. equal opportunity for infected individuals to access treatment). For a large range of diseases described by a simple SIRS model, we consider strategies that should be used to minimize the discounted number of infected individuals during the course of an epidemic. We show that when faced with the dilemma of choosing between socially equitable and purely efficient strategies, the choice of the control strategy should be informed by key measurable epidemiological factors such as the basic reproductive number and the efficiency of the treatment measure. Our model provides new insights for policy makers in the optimal deployment of limited resources for control in the event of epidemic outbreaks at the landscape scale.

Resource use efficiency of closed plant production system with artificial light: concept, estimation and application to plant factory.

PubMed

Kozai, Toyoki

2013-01-01

Extensive research has recently been conducted on plant factory with artificial light, which is one type of closed plant production system (CPPS) consisting of a thermally insulated and airtight structure, a multi-tier system with lighting devices, air conditioners and fans, a CO2 supply unit, a nutrient solution supply unit, and an environment control unit. One of the research outcomes is the concept of resource use efficiency (RUE) of CPPS.This paper reviews the characteristics of the CPPS compared with those of the greenhouse, mainly from the viewpoint of RUE, which is defined as the ratio of the amount of the resource fixed or held in plants to the amount of the resource supplied to the CPPS.It is shown that the use efficiencies of water, CO2 and light energy are considerably higher in the CPPS than those in the greenhouse. On the other hand, there is much more room for improving the light and electric energy use efficiencies of CPPS. Challenging issues for CPPS and RUE are also discussed.

Conceptual framework of public health surveillance and action and its application in health sector reform.

PubMed

McNabb, Scott J N; Chungong, Stella; Ryan, Mike; Wuhib, Tadesse; Nsubuga, Peter; Alemu, Wondi; Carande-Kulis, Vilma; Rodier, Guenael

2002-01-01

Because both public health surveillance and action are crucial, the authors initiated meetings at regional and national levels to assess and reform surveillance and action systems. These meetings emphasized improved epidemic preparedness, epidemic response, and highlighted standardized assessment and reform. To standardize assessments, the authors designed a conceptual framework for surveillance and action that categorized the framework into eight core and four support activities, measured with indicators. In application, country-level reformers measure both the presence and performance of the six core activities comprising public health surveillance (detection, registration, reporting, confirmation, analyses, and feedback) and acute (epidemic-type) and planned (management-type) responses composing the two core activities of public health action. Four support activities - communications, supervision, training, and resource provision - enable these eight core processes. National, multiple systems can then be concurrently assessed at each level for effectiveness, technical efficiency, and cost. This approach permits a cost analysis, highlights areas amenable to integration, and provides focused intervention. The final public health model becomes a district-focused, action-oriented integration of core and support activities with enhanced effectiveness, technical efficiency, and cost savings. This reform approach leads to sustained capacity development by an empowerment strategy defined as facilitated, process-oriented action steps transforming staff and the system.

Optima Nutrition: an allocative efficiency tool to reduce childhood stunting by better targeting of nutrition-related interventions.

PubMed

Pearson, Ruth; Killedar, Madhura; Petravic, Janka; Kakietek, Jakub J; Scott, Nick; Grantham, Kelsey L; Stuart, Robyn M; Kedziora, David J; Kerr, Cliff C; Skordis-Worrall, Jolene; Shekar, Meera; Wilson, David P

2018-03-20

Child stunting due to chronic malnutrition is a major problem in low- and middle-income countries due, in part, to inadequate nutrition-related practices and insufficient access to services. Limited budgets for nutritional interventions mean that available resources must be targeted in the most cost-effective manner to have the greatest impact. Quantitative tools can help guide budget allocation decisions. The Optima approach is an established framework to conduct resource allocation optimization analyses. We applied this approach to develop a new tool, 'Optima Nutrition', for conducting allocative efficiency analyses that address childhood stunting. At the core of the Optima approach is an epidemiological model for assessing the burden of disease; we use an adapted version of the Lives Saved Tool (LiST). Six nutritional interventions have been included in the first release of the tool: antenatal micronutrient supplementation, balanced energy-protein supplementation, exclusive breastfeeding promotion, promotion of improved infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices, public provision of complementary foods, and vitamin A supplementation. To demonstrate the use of this tool, we applied it to evaluate the optimal allocation of resources in 7 districts in Bangladesh, using both publicly available data (such as through DHS) and data from a complementary costing study. Optima Nutrition can be used to estimate how to target resources to improve nutrition outcomes. Specifically, for the Bangladesh example, despite only limited nutrition-related funding available (an estimated $0.75 per person in need per year), even without any extra resources, better targeting of investments in nutrition programming could increase the cumulative number of children living without stunting by 1.3 million (an extra 5%) by 2030 compared to the current resource allocation. To minimize stunting, priority interventions should include promotion of improved IYCF practices as well as vitamin A supplementation. Once these programs are adequately funded, the public provision of complementary foods should be funded as the next priority. Programmatic efforts should give greatest emphasis to the regions of Dhaka and Chittagong, which have the greatest number of stunted children. A resource optimization tool can provide important guidance for targeting nutrition investments to achieve greater impact.

Risky business.

PubMed

Baram, M

1996-10-01

In prior studies by high-level commissions, emphasis was given to improving the scientific basis and institutional procedures for risk assessment and risk regulation within existing statutory frameworks. Recommendations have led to slow but steady progress. This study is considerably different. It emphasizes a public health approach for efficient use of resources in a new flexible framework for risk management, reductionist approaches to risk assessment and characterization, increased public involvement, and various methods for managing such public involvement. It provides a mix of aspirations and concepts, procedures, and "shop floor rules" for putting the new system of risk management into practice. Concerns remain, however, that bright lines and other rules are at odds with the report's professed aspirations for meaningful public involvement; that ad hoc institutional arrangements for putting each risk in a situational context may not be an efficient use of public and private resources; that techniques for managing stakeholder involvement will be seen as manipulative and may even increase public mistrust and anxieties about risk; and that reductionism by the regulatory clients of risk assessment could diminish progress in the environmental health sciences. Says Lucier, "The goal of risk assessment should be to prevent environmentally or occupationally mediated diseases or injury. This point is not made sufficiently clear in the commission's report. Nevertheless, the report does an admirable job of attempting to merge science, common sense, public perception, public health, economics, and stakeholder interests into a regulatory policy strategy." He continues, "The merging of these diverse inputs will never be easy and should never be overly prescriptive. The complete integration of all relevant information into the risk assessment and risk management process will require greater reliance on expert judgment to make decisions that are timely, that are based on appropriate peer review, that are consistent with public health priorities, that do not create unnecessary regulatory burdens, and that are understandable by the public." The commission's report provides an alternative vision of risk management that incorporates popular political and social trends. Thorough evaluation of the report's recommendations will, at the very least, focus scrutiny on current risk assessment and risk management practices and perhaps produce better solutions.

Risky business.

PubMed Central

Baram, M

1996-01-01

In prior studies by high-level commissions, emphasis was given to improving the scientific basis and institutional procedures for risk assessment and risk regulation within existing statutory frameworks. Recommendations have led to slow but steady progress. This study is considerably different. It emphasizes a public health approach for efficient use of resources in a new flexible framework for risk management, reductionist approaches to risk assessment and characterization, increased public involvement, and various methods for managing such public involvement. It provides a mix of aspirations and concepts, procedures, and "shop floor rules" for putting the new system of risk management into practice. Concerns remain, however, that bright lines and other rules are at odds with the report's professed aspirations for meaningful public involvement; that ad hoc institutional arrangements for putting each risk in a situational context may not be an efficient use of public and private resources; that techniques for managing stakeholder involvement will be seen as manipulative and may even increase public mistrust and anxieties about risk; and that reductionism by the regulatory clients of risk assessment could diminish progress in the environmental health sciences. Says Lucier, "The goal of risk assessment should be to prevent environmentally or occupationally mediated diseases or injury. This point is not made sufficiently clear in the commission's report. Nevertheless, the report does an admirable job of attempting to merge science, common sense, public perception, public health, economics, and stakeholder interests into a regulatory policy strategy." He continues, "The merging of these diverse inputs will never be easy and should never be overly prescriptive. The complete integration of all relevant information into the risk assessment and risk management process will require greater reliance on expert judgment to make decisions that are timely, that are based on appropriate peer review, that are consistent with public health priorities, that do not create unnecessary regulatory burdens, and that are understandable by the public." The commission's report provides an alternative vision of risk management that incorporates popular political and social trends. Thorough evaluation of the report's recommendations will, at the very least, focus scrutiny on current risk assessment and risk management practices and perhaps produce better solutions. PMID:8930543

Measuring efficiency of cotton cultivation in Pakistan: a restricted production frontier study.

PubMed

Watto, Muhammad Arif; Mugera, Amin

2014-11-01

Massive groundwater pumping for irrigation has started lowering water tables rapidly in different regions of Pakistan. Declining water tables have thus prompted research efforts to improve agricultural productivity and efficiency to make efficient use of scarce water resources. This study employs a restricted stochastic production frontier to estimate the level of, and factors affecting, technical efficiency of groundwater-irrigated cotton farms in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The mean technical efficiency estimates indicate substantial technical inefficiencies among cotton growers. On average, tube-well owners and water buyers can potentially increase cotton production by 19% and 28%, respectively, without increasing the existing input level. The most influential factors affecting technical efficiency positively are the use of improved quality seed, consultation with extension field staff and farmers' perceptions concerning the availability of groundwater resources for irrigation in the future. This study proposes that adopting improved seed for new cotton varieties and providing better extension services regarding cotton production technology would help to achieve higher efficiency in cotton farming. Within the context of falling water tables, educating farmers about the actual crop water requirements and guiding them about groundwater resource availability may also help to achieve higher efficiencies. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry.

Assessment of Preschool Early Literacy Skills: Linking Children's Educational Needs with Empirically Supported Instructional Activities.

PubMed

Lonigan, Christopher J; Allan, Nicholas P; Lerner, Matthew D

2011-05-01

The importance of the preschool period for becoming a skilled reader is highlighted by a significant body of evidence that preschool children's development in the areas of oral language, phonological awareness, and print knowledge is predictive of how well they will learn to read once they are exposed to formal reading instruction in elementary school. Although there are now a number of empirically supported instructional activities for helping children who are at -risk of later reading difficulties acquire these early literacy skills, limitations in instructional time and opportunities in most preschool settings requires the use of valid assessment procedures to ensure that instructional resources are utilized efficiently. In this paper, we discuss the degree to which informal, diagnostic, screening, and progress-monitoring assessments of preschool early literacy skills can inform instructional decisions by considering the strengths and weaknesses of each approach to assessment.

VARIANCE ESTIMATION FOR SPATIALLY BALANCED SAMPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES

EPA Science Inventory

The spatial distribution of a natural resource is an important consideration in designing an efficient survey or monitoring program for the resource. We review a unified strategy for designing probability samples of discrete, finite resource populations, such as lakes within som...

An Assessment of Artificial Compressibility and Pressure Projection Methods for Incompressible Flow Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kwak, Dochan; Kiris, C.; Smith, Charles A. (Technical Monitor)

1998-01-01

Performance of the two commonly used numerical procedures, one based on artificial compressibility method and the other pressure projection method, are compared. These formulations are selected primarily because they are designed for three-dimensional applications. The computational procedures are compared by obtaining steady state solutions of a wake vortex and unsteady solutions of a curved duct flow. For steady computations, artificial compressibility was very efficient in terms of computing time and robustness. For an unsteady flow which requires small physical time step, pressure projection method was found to be computationally more efficient than an artificial compressibility method. This comparison is intended to give some basis for selecting a method or a flow solution code for large three-dimensional applications where computing resources become a critical issue.

Assessing the Feasibility of Comprehensive Energy Efficiency Upgrades at Potawatomi Carter Casino Hotel

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Karman, Nathan A.

The Forest County Potawatomi Community, a federally-recognized Indian Tribe with a strong commitment to the natural environment, sought and obtained funding to investigate energy efficient improvements to its Potawatomi Carter Casino & Hotel and the adjacent Potawatomi Carter C-Store and Smoke Shop. The resulting energy studies recommended energy conservation measures that would collectively reduce energy use by more than 30% at the facilities and would save approximately $200,000 per year in energy costs. Consistent with its commitment to the natural environment, and to advance its goal of energy independence using Carbon free or Carbon neutral renewable resources, the Community hasmore » already begun implementing certain measures and continues to seek funding sources necessary to implement the remaining measures.« less

Sustainable hydropower in Lower Mekong Countries: Technical assessment and training travel report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hadjerioua, Boualem; Witt, Adam M.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), through their partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), requested the support of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to provide specialized technical assistance as part of the Smart Infrastructure for the Mekong (SIM) Program in Thailand. Introduced in July 2013 by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, SIM is a U.S. Government Inter-Agency program that provides Lower Mekong partner countries with targeted, demand-driven technical and scientific assistance to support environmentally sound, climate conscious and socially equitable infrastructure, clean energy development, and water resources optimization. The U.S. Government is committed to supportingmore » sustainable economic development within the region by providing tools, best practices, technical assistance, and lessons learned for the benefit of partner countries. In response to a request from the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), a SIM project was developed with two main activities: 1) to promote hydropower sustainability and efficiency through technical assessment training at two existing hydropower assets in Thailand, and 2) the design and implementation of one national and two or three regional science and policy workshops, to be co-hosted with EGAT, to build common understanding of and commitment to environmental and social safeguards for Mekong Basin hydropower projects. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is leading the technical assessment (Activity 1), and has contracted ORNL to provide expert technical assistance focused on increasing efficiency at existing projects, with the goal of increasing renewable energy generation at little to no capital cost. ORNL is the leading national laboratory in hydropower analysis, with a nationally recognized and highly qualified team of scientists addressing small to large-scale systems (basin-, regional-, and national-scale) energy generation optimization analysis for DOE. The mission of the ORNL Water Power Program is to develop technologies, decision-support tools, and methods of analysis that enable holistic management of water-dependent energy infrastructure and natural resources in support of the DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office (DOE-EERE), Federal hydropower agencies, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), energy producers, and other entities. In support of SIM, ORNL completed technical assessments of two hydropower plants owned and operated by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT): Vajiralongkorn (VRK), with an installed capacity of 300 MW, and Rajjaprabha (RPB), with an installed capacity of 240MW. Technical assessment is defined as the assessment of hydropower operation and performance, and the identification of potential opportunities for performance improvement through plant optimization. At each plant, the assessment included an initial analysis of hydropower operating and performance metrics, provided by dam owners. After this analysis, ORNL engaged with the plant management team in a skills exchange, where best practices, operational methods, and technical challenges were discussed. The technical assessment process was outlined to plant management followed by a presentation of preliminary results and analysis based on 50 days of operational data. EGAT has agreed to provide a full year of operational data so a complete and detailed assessment that captures seasonal variability can be completed. The results of these assessments and discussions will be used to develop a set of best practices, training, and procedure recommendations to improve the efficiency of the two assessed plants« less

An efficient dynamic load balancing algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lagaros, Nikos D.

2014-01-01

In engineering problems, randomness and uncertainties are inherent. Robust design procedures, formulated in the framework of multi-objective optimization, have been proposed in order to take into account sources of randomness and uncertainty. These design procedures require orders of magnitude more computational effort than conventional analysis or optimum design processes since a very large number of finite element analyses is required to be dealt. It is therefore an imperative need to exploit the capabilities of computing resources in order to deal with this kind of problems. In particular, parallel computing can be implemented at the level of metaheuristic optimization, by exploiting the physical parallelization feature of the nondominated sorting evolution strategies method, as well as at the level of repeated structural analyses required for assessing the behavioural constraints and for calculating the objective functions. In this study an efficient dynamic load balancing algorithm for optimum exploitation of available computing resources is proposed and, without loss of generality, is applied for computing the desired Pareto front. In such problems the computation of the complete Pareto front with feasible designs only, constitutes a very challenging task. The proposed algorithm achieves linear speedup factors and almost 100% speedup factor values with reference to the sequential procedure.

Assessing and Managing Natural Resource Damages: Continuing Challenges and Opportunities.

PubMed

Barnthouse, Lawrence W; Stahl, Ralph G

2017-05-01

In a 2002 paper, we discussed the technical challenges associated with quantifying natural resource injuries, service losses and damages, and suggested some actions that might help to overcome them. An important suggestion was to consider using some of the approaches in ecological risk assessment to help evaluate potential natural resource injuries, and ultimately in some cases to help translate those injuries into natural resource service loss. This was based on the observation that ecological risk assessment and natural resource damage assessments use much of the same types of data, but at that time the experience base with ecological risk assessment was greater than for natural resource damage assessments. We also discussed some of the issues in applying the then current Department of Interior natural resource damage assessments regulations. Since our 2002 publication the scientific literature, relevant regulations, the global context and more have changed. In the current paper we focus on the technical and regulatory changes in natural resource damage assessments practice since 2002, and use recent reports and publications to illustrate those changes and identify new directions in natural resource damage assessments.

Assessing and Managing Natural Resource Damages: Continuing Challenges and Opportunities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnthouse, Lawrence W.; Stahl, Ralph G.

2017-05-01

In a 2002 paper, we discussed the technical challenges associated with quantifying natural resource injuries, service losses and damages, and suggested some actions that might help to overcome them. An important suggestion was to consider using some of the approaches in ecological risk assessment to help evaluate potential natural resource injuries, and ultimately in some cases to help translate those injuries into natural resource service loss. This was based on the observation that ecological risk assessment and natural resource damage assessments use much of the same types of data, but at that time the experience base with ecological risk assessment was greater than for natural resource damage assessments. We also discussed some of the issues in applying the then current Department of Interior natural resource damage assessments regulations. Since our 2002 publication the scientific literature, relevant regulations, the global context and more have changed. In the current paper we focus on the technical and regulatory changes in natural resource damage assessments practice since 2002, and use recent reports and publications to illustrate those changes and identify new directions in natural resource damage assessments.

Integrating Hospital Administrative Data to Improve Health Care Efficiency and Outcomes: “The Socrates Story”

PubMed Central

Lawrence, Justin; Delaney, Conor P.

2013-01-01

Evaluation of health care outcomes has become increasingly important as we strive to improve quality and efficiency while controlling cost. Many groups feel that analysis of large datasets will be useful in optimizing resource utilization; however, the ideal blend of clinical and administrative data points has not been developed. Hospitals and health care systems have several tools to measure cost and resource utilization, but the data are often housed in disparate systems that are not integrated and do not permit multisystem analysis. Systems Outcomes and Clinical Resources AdministraTive Efficiency Software (SOCRATES) is a novel data merging, warehousing, analysis, and reporting technology, which brings together disparate hospital administrative systems generating automated or customizable risk-adjusted reports. Used in combination with standardized enhanced care pathways, SOCRATES offers a mechanism to improve the quality and efficiency of care, with the ability to measure real-time changes in outcomes. PMID:24436649

Integrating hospital administrative data to improve health care efficiency and outcomes: "the socrates story".

PubMed

Lawrence, Justin; Delaney, Conor P

2013-03-01

Evaluation of health care outcomes has become increasingly important as we strive to improve quality and efficiency while controlling cost. Many groups feel that analysis of large datasets will be useful in optimizing resource utilization; however, the ideal blend of clinical and administrative data points has not been developed. Hospitals and health care systems have several tools to measure cost and resource utilization, but the data are often housed in disparate systems that are not integrated and do not permit multisystem analysis. Systems Outcomes and Clinical Resources AdministraTive Efficiency Software (SOCRATES) is a novel data merging, warehousing, analysis, and reporting technology, which brings together disparate hospital administrative systems generating automated or customizable risk-adjusted reports. Used in combination with standardized enhanced care pathways, SOCRATES offers a mechanism to improve the quality and efficiency of care, with the ability to measure real-time changes in outcomes.

Data envelopment analysis for estimating efficiency of intensive care units: a case study in Iran.

PubMed

Bahrami, Mohammad Amin; Rafiei, Sima; Abedi, Mahdieh; Askari, Roohollah

2018-05-14

Purpose As hospitals are the most costly service providers in every healthcare systems, special attention should be given to their performance in terms of resource allocation and consumption. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate technical, allocative and economic efficiency in intensive care units (ICUs) of hospitals affiliated by Yazd University of Medical Sciences (YUMS) in 2015. Design/methodology/approach This was a descriptive, analytical study conducted in ICUs of seven training hospitals affiliated by YUMS using data envelopment analysis (DEA) in 2015. The number of physicians, nurses, active beds and equipment were regarded as input variables and bed occupancy rate, the number of discharged patients, economic information such as bed price and physicians' fees were mentioned as output variables of the study. Available data from study variables were retrospectively gathered and analyzed through the Deap 2.1 software using the variable returns to scale methodology. Findings The study findings revealed the average scores of allocative, economic, technical, managerial and scale efficiency to be relatively 0.956, 0.866, 0.883, 0.89 and 0.913. Regarding to latter three types of efficiency, five hospitals had desirable performance. Practical implications Given that additional costs due to an extra number of manpower or unnecessary capital resources impose economic pressure on hospitals also the fact that reduction of surplus production plays a major role in reducing such expenditures in hospitals, it is suggested that departments with low efficiency reduce their input surpluses to achieve the optimal level of performance. Originality/value The authors applied a DEA approach to measure allocative, economic, technical, managerial and scale efficiency of under-study hospitals. This is a helpful linear programming method which acts as a powerful and understandable approach for comparative performance assessment in healthcare settings and a guidance for healthcare managers to improve their departments' performance.

A 21st Century Roadmap for Human Health Risk Assessment ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

For decades human health risk assessment has depended primarily on animal testing to predict adverse effects in humans, but that paradigm has come under question because of calls for more accurate information, less use of animals, and more efficient use of resources. Moreover, the disproportionate use of hazard information has overshadowed the important role of exposure science in determinations of human safety. In addition, major risk assessments lack the clarity and transparency that hinder an understanding of the analysis and communication of key safety messages. To help answer these challenges, the HESI-managed RISK21 project was initiated to develop a scientific, transparent, and efficient approach to the evolving world of human health risk assessment. RISK21 involved over 120 participants from 12 countries, 15 government institutions, 20 universities, 2 non-governmental organizations, and 12 corporations. RISK21 developed a tiered approach that is problem formulation-based, makes maximum use of prior knowledge, and is led by exposure science to produce a highly transparent and flexible visualization of and approach to assessing human safety and risk. The general principles underlying the RISK21 approach as well as an overview of the RISK21 Roadmap are presented here. This paper will be followed by a series of publications that will articulate the details that comprise this systematic approach. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide an overview

Predicting the Future: Opportunities and Challenges for the Chemical Industry to Apply 21st-Century Toxicity Testing

PubMed Central

Settivari, Raja S; Ball, Nicholas; Murphy, Lynea; Rasoulpour, Reza; Boverhof, Darrell R; Carney, Edward W

2015-01-01

Interest in applying 21st-century toxicity testing tools for safety assessment of industrial chemicals is growing. Whereas conventional toxicology uses mainly animal-based, descriptive methods, a paradigm shift is emerging in which computational approaches, systems biology, high-throughput in vitro toxicity assays, and high-throughput exposure assessments are beginning to be applied to mechanism-based risk assessments in a time- and resource-efficient fashion. Here we describe recent advances in predictive safety assessment, with a focus on their strategic application to meet the changing demands of the chemical industry and its stakeholders. The opportunities to apply these new approaches is extensive and include screening of new chemicals, informing the design of safer and more sustainable chemical alternatives, filling information gaps on data-poor chemicals already in commerce, strengthening read-across methodology for categories of chemicals sharing similar modes of action, and optimizing the design of reduced-risk product formulations. Finally, we discuss how these predictive approaches dovetail with in vivo integrated testing strategies within repeated-dose regulatory toxicity studies, which are in line with 3Rs principles to refine, reduce, and replace animal testing. Strategic application of these tools is the foundation for informed and efficient safety assessment testing strategies that can be applied at all stages of the product-development process. PMID:25836969

Toward More Effective Use of School Resources

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rossmiller, Richard A.; Geske, Terry G.

1976-01-01

Discusses the use of economic analysis to examine relationships between school resources and school outcomes. Outlines a conceptual framework that employs a systems approach to analyze the efficiency of school resource allocation. (JG)

Computer-aided resource planning and scheduling for radiological services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia, Hong-Mei C.; Yun, David Y.; Ge, Yiqun; Khan, Javed I.

1996-05-01

There exists tremendous opportunity in hospital-wide resource optimization based on system integration. This paper defines the resource planning and scheduling requirements integral to PACS, RIS and HIS integration. An multi-site case study is conducted to define the requirements. A well-tested planning and scheduling methodology, called Constrained Resource Planning model, has been applied to the chosen problem of radiological service optimization. This investigation focuses on resource optimization issues for minimizing the turnaround time to increase clinical efficiency and customer satisfaction, particularly in cases where the scheduling of multiple exams are required for a patient. How best to combine the information system efficiency and human intelligence in improving radiological services is described. Finally, an architecture for interfacing a computer-aided resource planning and scheduling tool with the existing PACS, HIS and RIS implementation is presented.

Prospective CO 2 saline resource estimation methodology: Refinement of existing US-DOE-NETL methods based on data availability

DOE PAGES

Goodman, Angela; Sanguinito, Sean; Levine, Jonathan S.

2016-09-28

Carbon storage resource estimation in subsurface saline formations plays an important role in establishing the scale of carbon capture and storage activities for governmental policy and commercial project decision-making. Prospective CO 2 resource estimation of large regions or subregions, such as a basin, occurs at the initial screening stages of a project using only limited publicly available geophysical data, i.e. prior to project-specific site selection data generation. As the scale of investigation is narrowed and selected areas and formations are identified, prospective CO 2 resource estimation can be refined and uncertainty narrowed when site-specific geophysical data are available. Here, wemore » refine the United States Department of Energy – National Energy Technology Laboratory (US-DOE-NETL) methodology as the scale of investigation is narrowed from very large regional assessments down to selected areas and formations that may be developed for commercial storage. In addition, we present a new notation that explicitly identifies differences between data availability and data sources used for geologic parameters and efficiency factors as the scale of investigation is narrowed. This CO 2 resource estimation method is available for screening formations in a tool called CO 2-SCREEN.« less

Theoretical Calculations on the Feasibility of Microalgal Biofuels: Utilization of Marine Resources Could Help Realizing the Potential of Microalgae

PubMed Central

Park, Hanwool

2016-01-01

Abstract Microalgae have long been considered as one of most promising feedstocks with better characteristics for biofuels production over conventional energy crops. There have been a wide range of estimations on the feasibility of microalgal biofuels based on various productivity assumptions and data from different scales. The theoretical maximum algal biofuel productivity, however, can be calculated by the amount of solar irradiance and photosynthetic efficiency (PE), assuming other conditions are within the optimal range. Using the actual surface solar irradiance data around the world and PE of algal culture systems, maximum algal biomass and biofuel productivities were calculated, and feasibility of algal biofuel were assessed with the estimation. The results revealed that biofuel production would not easily meet the economic break‐even point and may not be sustainable at a large‐scale with the current algal biotechnology. Substantial reductions in the production cost, improvements in lipid productivity, recycling of resources, and utilization of non‐conventional resources will be necessary for feasible mass production of algal biofuel. Among the emerging technologies, cultivation of microalgae in the ocean shows great potentials to meet the resource requirements and economic feasibility in algal biofuel production by utilizing various marine resources. PMID:27782372

Theoretical Calculations on the Feasibility of Microalgal Biofuels: Utilization of Marine Resources Could Help Realizing the Potential of Microalgae.

PubMed

Park, Hanwool; Lee, Choul-Gyun

2016-11-01

Microalgae have long been considered as one of most promising feedstocks with better characteristics for biofuels production over conventional energy crops. There have been a wide range of estimations on the feasibility of microalgal biofuels based on various productivity assumptions and data from different scales. The theoretical maximum algal biofuel productivity, however, can be calculated by the amount of solar irradiance and photosynthetic efficiency (PE), assuming other conditions are within the optimal range. Using the actual surface solar irradiance data around the world and PE of algal culture systems, maximum algal biomass and biofuel productivities were calculated, and feasibility of algal biofuel were assessed with the estimation. The results revealed that biofuel production would not easily meet the economic break-even point and may not be sustainable at a large-scale with the current algal biotechnology. Substantial reductions in the production cost, improvements in lipid productivity, recycling of resources, and utilization of non-conventional resources will be necessary for feasible mass production of algal biofuel. Among the emerging technologies, cultivation of microalgae in the ocean shows great potentials to meet the resource requirements and economic feasibility in algal biofuel production by utilizing various marine resources. © 2016 The Authors. Biotechnology Journal published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Prospective CO 2 saline resource estimation methodology: Refinement of existing US-DOE-NETL methods based on data availability

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Goodman, Angela; Sanguinito, Sean; Levine, Jonathan S.

Carbon storage resource estimation in subsurface saline formations plays an important role in establishing the scale of carbon capture and storage activities for governmental policy and commercial project decision-making. Prospective CO 2 resource estimation of large regions or subregions, such as a basin, occurs at the initial screening stages of a project using only limited publicly available geophysical data, i.e. prior to project-specific site selection data generation. As the scale of investigation is narrowed and selected areas and formations are identified, prospective CO 2 resource estimation can be refined and uncertainty narrowed when site-specific geophysical data are available. Here, wemore » refine the United States Department of Energy – National Energy Technology Laboratory (US-DOE-NETL) methodology as the scale of investigation is narrowed from very large regional assessments down to selected areas and formations that may be developed for commercial storage. In addition, we present a new notation that explicitly identifies differences between data availability and data sources used for geologic parameters and efficiency factors as the scale of investigation is narrowed. This CO 2 resource estimation method is available for screening formations in a tool called CO 2-SCREEN.« less

Examination of Resource Allocation in Education: Connecting Spending to Student Performance. Research Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pan, Diane; Rudo, Zena H.; Schneider, Cynthia L.; Smith-Hansen, Lotte

This document reports on a study on the relationship between resources and student performance. The study examined district-level patterns of resource allocation, district and school resource practices implemented to improve student performance, and barriers and challenges to efficient resource allocation faced by districts and schools. The study…

Investigation of the impacts of selected nanotechnology products with view to their demand for raw materials and energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Möller, M.; Diesner, M.; Manhart, A.; Küppers, P.; Spieth-Achtnich, A.; Pistner, C.

2014-08-01

In the study presented here qualitative and quantitative life-cycle considerations were employed to assess the potential material and energy savings that might be achieved through nanoenabled applications. Ten nanotechnology application fields with broad market coverage and immediate impact to either the generation of renewable energies or the use of critical resources were analyzed. Organic photovoltaic modules (solar cells that essentially consist of organic materials) and electronically dimmable windows (electrochromic laminated glass, which can be adjusted to conform to the ambient light conditions) as two very promising nano-enabled applications were quantitatively analyzed. Eight further products including neodymium magnets were evaluated on a qualitative basis. All assessments contain classical indicators such as energy efficiency, product carbon footprint, and resource consumption. In addition, pollutant aspects (exposure and toxicology) as well as other sustainability aspects (such as user benefits) were taken into account in the framework of a so-called "hot spot analysis". Furthermore, drivers behind the innovation as well as associated rebound effects were identified. The results highlight the importance of product specific analyses based on a life-cycle thinking approach.

Optimizing the integrated efficiency for water resource utilization：based on Economic perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, L.; Yoshikawa, S.; Kanae, S.

2014-12-01

At present, total global water withdrawal is increasing and water shortage will become a crucial issue around the world. In the 2050, the water withdrawal will exceed the water which we can get it from the river and underground. One of the ways of alleviating water scarcity is increasing the efficiency of water use without development of additional water supplies. In previous literatures about water use efficiency, there are less discussion about the temporal efficiency change with corresponding characteristics of water resource. The main aim of this paper is to estimate the temporal efficiency of water use during 2011-2020 for proposing how to use efficiently the limited water. This paper used dynamic Data Envelope Analysis to estimate the efficiency which is the ratio of the sum of weighted outputs to the sum of weighted inputs. Our model uses cost of agricultural production as input indices and production value of the agriculture as output index，water withdrawal as temporal linkage. We mainly work on the two problems: Firstly, finding out the evident how much the value of water use efficiencies are in each target country; Secondly, adjusting the output value to make those countries which water use inefficiency reach to DEA efficient. The results provide a scientific reference to make rational allocation and the sustainable use of water resources would be realized.

Consideration of reference points for the management of renewable resources under an adaptive management paradigm

USGS Publications Warehouse

Irwin, Brian J.; Conroy, Michael J.

2013-01-01

The success of natural resource management depends on monitoring, assessment and enforcement. In support of these efforts, reference points (RPs) are often viewed as critical values of management-relevant indicators. This paper considers RPs from the standpoint of objective-driven decision making in dynamic resource systems, guided by principles of structured decision making (SDM) and adaptive resource management (AM). During the development of natural resource policy, RPs have been variously treated as either ‘targets’ or ‘triggers’. Under a SDM/AM paradigm, target RPs correspond approximately to value-based objectives, which may in turn be either of fundamental interest to stakeholders or intermediaries to other central objectives. By contrast, trigger RPs correspond to decision rules that are presumed to lead to desirable outcomes (such as the programme targets). Casting RPs as triggers or targets within a SDM framework is helpful towards clarifying why (or whether) a particular metric is appropriate. Further, the benefits of a SDM/AM process include elucidation of underlying untested assumptions that may reveal alternative metrics for use as RPs. Likewise, a structured decision-analytic framework may also reveal that failure to achieve management goals is not because the metrics are wrong, but because the decision-making process in which they are embedded is insufficiently robust to uncertainty, is not efficiently directed at producing a resource objective, or is incapable of adaptation to new knowledge.

An Assessment Model for Energy Efficiency Program Planning in Electric Utilities: Case of the Pacific of Northwest U.S.A

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iskin, Ibrahim

Energy efficiency stands out with its potential to address a number of challenges that today's electric utilities face, including increasing and changing electricity demand, shrinking operating capacity, and decreasing system reliability and flexibility. Being the least cost and least risky alternative, the share of energy efficiency programs in utilities' energy portfolios has been on the rise since the 1980s, and their increasing importance is expected to continue in the future. Despite holding great promise, the ability to determine and invest in only the most promising program alternatives plays a key role in the successful use of energy efficiency as a utility-wide resource. This issue becomes even more significant considering the availability of a vast number of potential energy efficiency programs, the rapidly changing business environment, and the existence of multiple stakeholders. This dissertation introduces hierarchical decision modeling as the framework for energy efficiency program planning in electric utilities. The model focuses on the assessment of emerging energy efficiency programs and proposes to bridge the gap between technology screening and cost/benefit evaluation practices. This approach is expected to identify emerging technology alternatives which have the highest potential to pass cost/benefit ratio testing procedures and contribute to the effectiveness of decision practices in energy efficiency program planning. The model also incorporates rank order analysis and sensitivity analysis for testing the robustness of results from different stakeholder perspectives and future uncertainties in an attempt to enable more informed decision-making practices. The model was applied to the case of 13 high priority emerging energy efficiency program alternatives identified in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. The results of this study reveal that energy savings potential is the most important program management consideration in selecting emerging energy efficiency programs. Market dissemination potential and program development and implementation potential are the second and third most important, whereas ancillary benefits potential is the least important program management consideration. The results imply that program value considerations, comprised of energy savings potential and ancillary benefits potential; and program feasibility considerations, comprised of program development and implementation potential and market dissemination potential, have almost equal impacts on assessment of emerging energy efficiency programs. Considering the overwhelming number of value-focused studies and the few feasibility-focused studies in the literature, this finding clearly shows that feasibility-focused studies are greatly understudied. The hierarchical decision model developed in this dissertation is generalizable. Thus, other utilities or power systems can adopt the research steps employed in this study as guidelines and conduct similar assessment studies on emerging energy efficiency programs of their interest.

U.S. DOE methodology for the development of geologic storage potential for carbon dioxide at the national and regional scale

USGS Publications Warehouse

Goodman, Angela; Hakala, J. Alexandra; Bromhal, Grant; Deel, Dawn; Rodosta, Traci; Frailey, Scott; Small, Michael; Allen, Doug; Romanov, Vyacheslav; Fazio, Jim; Huerta, Nicolas; McIntyre, Dustin; Kutchko, Barbara; Guthrie, George

2011-01-01

A detailed description of the United States Department of Energy (US-DOE) methodology for estimating CO2 storage potential for oil and gas reservoirs, saline formations, and unmineable coal seams is provided. The oil and gas reservoirs are assessed at the field level, while saline formations and unmineable coal seams are assessed at the basin level. The US-DOE methodology is intended for external users such as the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSPs), future project developers, and governmental entities to produce high-level CO2 resource assessments of potential CO2 storage reservoirs in the United States and Canada at the regional and national scale; however, this methodology is general enough that it could be applied globally. The purpose of the US-DOE CO2 storage methodology, definitions of storage terms, and a CO2 storage classification are provided. Methodology for CO2 storage resource estimate calculation is outlined. The Log Odds Method when applied with Monte Carlo Sampling is presented in detail for estimation of CO2 storage efficiency needed for CO2 storage resource estimates at the regional and national scale. CO2 storage potential reported in the US-DOE's assessment are intended to be distributed online by a geographic information system in NatCarb and made available as hard-copy in the Carbon Sequestration Atlas of the United States and Canada. US-DOE's methodology will be continuously refined, incorporating results of the Development Phase projects conducted by the RCSPs from 2008 to 2018. Estimates will be formally updated every two years in subsequent versions of the Carbon Sequestration Atlas of the United States and Canada.

South-Africa (Goodstart III) trial: community-based maternal and newborn care economic analysis.

PubMed

Daviaud, Emmanuelle; Nkonki, Lungiswa; Ijumba, Petrida; Doherty, Tanya; Lawn, Joy E; Owen, Helen; Jackson, Debra; Tomlinson, Mark

2017-10-01

In light of South Africa's generalized HIV/AIDS epidemic coupled with high infant mortality, we undertook a cluster Randomized Control Trial (2008-10) assessing the effect of Community Health Worker (CHW) antenatal and postnatal home visits on, amongst other indicators, levels of HIV-free survival, and exclusive and appropriate infant feeding at 12 weeks. Cost and time implications were calculated, by assessing the 15 participating CHWs, using financial records, mHealth and interviews. Sustainability and scalability were assessed, enabling identification of health system issues. The majority (96%) of women in the community received an average of 4.1 visits (target seven). The paid, single purpose CHWs spent 13 h/week on the programme. The financial cost per mother amounted to $94 ($23 per home visit). Modelling target coverage (95% mothers, seven visits) and increased efficiency showed that if CHWs spent 25 h/week on the programme, the number of CHWs required would decrease from 15 to 12. The intervention almost doubled exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) at 12 weeks and showed a 6% relative increase in EBF with each additional CHW visit. Home visit programmes improve access and prevention but are not an inexpensive alternative: the observed cost per home visit is twice that of a clinic visit and in target/efficiency scenario decreases to 70% of the cost of a clinic visit. Ensuring sustainability requires optimizing the design of programmes and deployment of human resources, whilst maintaining impact. However, low remuneration of CHWs leads to shorter working hours, low motivation and sub-optimal coverage even in a situation with well-resourced supervision. The community-based care programme in South-Africa is based on multi-purpose CHWs, its cost and impact should be compared with results from this study. Quality of support for multi-purpose CHWs may be the biggest challenge to address to achieving higher efficiency of community-based services. ISRCTN41046462. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Human Resource Management Strategies and Teacher's Efficiency within Schools: A Co-Relational Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hashmi, Kiran

2014-01-01

The aim of the paper is to study Human Resource Management and Development (HRMD) strategies and their effect on teachers' efficiency within the Catholic Board of Education (CBE) schools of Pakistan whose teachers are graduates in educational leadership courses from a private teacher education institutes in Karachi. The study endeavored to build a…

How to Launch an Energy Star Energy Efficiency Competition for K-12 Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Utebay Kudret; McArthur, Ashley

2012-01-01

In recent years, schools have been forced by rising costs and shrinking budgets to stretch their resources further than ever before in order to meet the educational needs of today's students. EPA's ENERGY STAR program helps K-12 schools and districts improve energy efficiency, reduce operating costs and redirect critical resources into the…

Efficient resource allocation scheme for visible-light communication system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Woo-Chan; Bae, Chi-Sung; Cho, Dong-Ho; Shin, Hong-Seok; Jung, D. K.; Oh, Y. J.

2009-01-01

A visible-light communication utilizing LED has many advantagies such as visibility of information, high SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio), low installation cost, usage of existing illuminators, and high security. Furthermore, exponentially increasing needs and quality of LED have helped the development of visible-light communication. The visibility is the most attractive property in visible-light communication system, but it is difficult to ensure visibility and transmission efficiency simultaneously during initial access because of the small amount of initial access process signals. In this paper, we propose an efficient resource allocation scheme at initial access for ensuring visibility with high resource utilization rate and low data transmission failure rate. The performance has been evaluated through the numerical analysis and simulation results.

[Efficiency of human resources for health: an approach to its analysis in Mexico].

PubMed

Nigenda, Gustavo; Alcalde-Rabanal, Jaqueline; González-Robledo, Luz María; Serván-Mori, Edson; García-Saiso, Sebastián; Lozano, Rafael

2016-01-01

To analyze efficiency indicators of human resources working at Mexico's Ministry of Health. Three dimensions of efficiency were explored: a) labor wastage, b) distribution of human resources (HR) across levels of care, and c) productivity. Health workers present significant levels of unemployment and underemployment; distribution does not meet international recommendations, and heterogeneous levels of productivity were found among states. Health and educational authorities should develop and implement a HR plan that takes into consideration the needs and demands of the covered population, and includes a clearly defined set of measures to regulate the future production of HR as well as their distribution among and within state health systems, and that allocates incentives to improve performance.

Engineering sustainable development

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Prendergast, J.

1993-10-01

This article discusses sustainable development, a policy which attempts to balance environmental preservation and economic growth, and promises a way to provide a decent life for Earth's human inhabitants without destroying the global ecosystem. Sustainable development is an effort to use technology to help clean up the mess it helped make, and engineers will be central players in its success or failure. Key aspects include more efficient energy use through conservation measures and switching to renewable sources, waste minimization, much greater recycling and reuse of materials, more comprehensive economic/environmental assessments employing life-cycle analyses, and better management of resources.

Energy Department Helps Advance Island Clean Energy Goals (Fact Sheet)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

2012-10-01

This U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) fact sheet highlights a June 2012 solar power purchase agreement between the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority and three corporations. The fact sheet describes how financial support from DOE and technical assistance from DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory enabled the U.S. Virgin Islands to realistically assess its clean energy resources and identify the most viable and cost-effective solutions to its energy challenges--resulting in a $65 million investment in solar energy in the territory.

Cost of management of patients with haemophilia.

PubMed Central

Carter, F; Forbes, C D; MacFarlane, J D; Prentice, C R

1976-01-01

The cost of managing 114 adult haemophiliacs in the west of Scotland was assessed for the period 1 March 1971 to 28 February 1974. Altogether 23 of them (20%) accounted for 80% of the resources used. The cost of hospital treatment of these patients during the period was compared with the predicted cost of home treatment, given the availability of freeze-dried factor VIII concentrate in sufficient amounts. We calculate that adequate on-demand home treatment would cost only 16% more than the present treatment, which is substantially less efficient. PMID:953611

Hydropower Projects

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

2015-04-02

The Water Power Program helps industry harness this renewable, emissions-free resource to generate environmentally sustainable and cost-effective electricity. Through support for public, private, and nonprofit efforts, the Water Power Program promotes the development, demonstration, and deployment of advanced hydropower devices and pumped storage hydropower applications. These technologies help capture energy stored by diversionary structures, increase the efficiency of hydroelectric generation, and use excess grid energy to replenish storage reserves for use during periods of peak electricity demand. In addition, the Water Power Program works to assess the potential extractable energy from domestic water resources to assist industry and government inmore » planning for our nation’s energy future. From FY 2008 to FY 2014, DOE’s Water Power Program announced awards totaling approximately $62.5 million to 33 projects focused on hydropower. Table 1 provides a brief description of these projects.« less

Workshop report: Identifying opportunities for global integration of toxicogenomics databases, 26-27 June 2013, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.

PubMed

Hendrickx, Diana M; Boyles, Rebecca R; Kleinjans, Jos C S; Dearry, Allen

2014-12-01

A joint US-EU workshop on enhancing data sharing and exchange in toxicogenomics was held at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences. Currently, efficient reuse of data is hampered by problems related to public data availability, data quality, database interoperability (the ability to exchange information), standardization and sustainability. At the workshop, experts from universities and research institutes presented databases, studies, organizations and tools that attempt to deal with these problems. Furthermore, a case study showing that combining toxicogenomics data from multiple resources leads to more accurate predictions in risk assessment was presented. All participants agreed that there is a need for a web portal describing the diverse, heterogeneous data resources relevant for toxicogenomics research. Furthermore, there was agreement that linking more data resources would improve toxicogenomics data analysis. To outline a roadmap to enhance interoperability between data resources, the participants recommend collecting user stories from the toxicogenomics research community on barriers in data sharing and exchange currently hampering answering to certain research questions. These user stories may guide the prioritization of steps to be taken for enhancing integration of toxicogenomics databases.

Introduction to health economics and decision-making: Is economics relevant for the frontline clinician?

PubMed

Goeree, Ron; Diaby, Vakaramoko

2013-12-01

In a climate of escalating demands for new health care services and significant constraints on new resources, the disciplines of health economics and health technology assessment (HTA) have increasingly been turned to as explicit evidence-based frameworks to help make tough health care access and reimbursement decisions. Health economics is the discipline of economics concerned with the efficient allocation of health care resources, essentially trying to maximize health benefits to society contingent upon available resources. HTA is a broader field drawing upon several disciplines, but which relies heavily upon the tools of health economics and economic evaluation. Traditionally, health economics and economic evaluation have been widely used at the political (macro) and local (meso) decision-making levels, and have progressively had an important role even at informing individual clinical decisions (micro level). The aim of this paper is to introduce readers to health economics and discuss its relevance to frontline clinicians. Particularly, the content of the paper will facilitate clinicians' understanding of the link between economics and their medical practice, and how clinical decision-making reflects on health care resource allocation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Grid Data and Tools | Grid Modernization | NREL

Science.gov Websites

technologies and strategies, including renewable resource data sets and models of the electric power system . Renewable Resource Data A library of resource information to inform the design of efficient, integrated

Natural Resource Dependency and Decentralized Conservation Within Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Project, Nepal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parker, Pete; Thapa, Brijesh

2012-02-01

Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Project (KCAP) in Nepal is among the first protected areas in the world to institute a completely decentralized system of conservation and development. Proponents of decentralized conservation claim that it increases management efficiency, enhances the responsiveness to local needs, and promotes greater equity among local residents. This study assessed local equity by evaluating the levels of dependencies on natural resources among households and the factors affecting that dependency. Data were collected via detailed surveys among 205 randomly selected households within the KCAP. Natural resource dependency was evaluated by comparing the ratio of total household income to income derived from access to natural resources. Economic, social, and access-related variables were employed to determine potential significant predictors of dependency. Overall, households were heavily dependent on natural resources for their income, especially households at higher elevations and those with more adult members. The households that received remittances were most able to supplement their income and, therefore, drastically reduced their reliance on the access to natural resources. Socio-economic variables, such as land holdings, education, caste, and ethnicity, failed to predict dependency. Household participation in KCAP-sponsored training programs also failed to affect household dependency; however, fewer than 20% of the households had any form of direct contact with KCAP personnel within the past year. The success of the KCAP as a decentralized conservation program is contingent on project capacity-building via social mobilization, training programs, and participatory inclusion in decision making to help alleviate the dependency on natural resources.

Natural resource dependency and decentralized conservation within Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Project, Nepal.

PubMed

Parker, Pete; Thapa, Brijesh

2012-02-01

Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Project (KCAP) in Nepal is among the first protected areas in the world to institute a completely decentralized system of conservation and development. Proponents of decentralized conservation claim that it increases management efficiency, enhances the responsiveness to local needs, and promotes greater equity among local residents. This study assessed local equity by evaluating the levels of dependencies on natural resources among households and the factors affecting that dependency. Data were collected via detailed surveys among 205 randomly selected households within the KCAP. Natural resource dependency was evaluated by comparing the ratio of total household income to income derived from access to natural resources. Economic, social, and access-related variables were employed to determine potential significant predictors of dependency. Overall, households were heavily dependent on natural resources for their income, especially households at higher elevations and those with more adult members. The households that received remittances were most able to supplement their income and, therefore, drastically reduced their reliance on the access to natural resources. Socio-economic variables, such as land holdings, education, caste, and ethnicity, failed to predict dependency. Household participation in KCAP-sponsored training programs also failed to affect household dependency; however, fewer than 20% of the households had any form of direct contact with KCAP personnel within the past year. The success of the KCAP as a decentralized conservation program is contingent on project capacity-building via social mobilization, training programs, and participatory inclusion in decision making to help alleviate the dependency on natural resources.

15 CFR 990.20 - Relationship to the CERCLA natural resource damage assessment regulations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE OIL POLLUTION ACT REGULATIONS NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS Authorities § 990.20 Relationship to the CERCLA natural resource damage assessment regulations. (a) General. Regulations for assessing natural resource damages resulting from hazardous substance releases under the Comprehensive...

15 CFR 990.20 - Relationship to the CERCLA natural resource damage assessment regulations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE OIL POLLUTION ACT REGULATIONS NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS Authorities § 990.20 Relationship to the CERCLA natural resource damage assessment regulations. (a) General. Regulations for assessing natural resource damages resulting from hazardous substance releases under the Comprehensive...

15 CFR 990.20 - Relationship to the CERCLA natural resource damage assessment regulations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE OIL POLLUTION ACT REGULATIONS NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS Authorities § 990.20 Relationship to the CERCLA natural resource damage assessment regulations. (a) General. Regulations for assessing natural resource damages resulting from hazardous substance releases under the Comprehensive...

Interactive videoconsultation is a feasible method for neurological in-patient assessment.

PubMed

Craig, J; Patterson, V; Russell, C; Wootton, R

2000-11-01

To evaluate the feasibility of interactive videoconsultation (IATV) as a means by which neurologists might assess patients admitted with neurological symptoms to hospitals distant from a neurological centre, we studied 25 unselected patients using interactive videoconsultation (IATV) and then validated the IATV diagnoses and management plans at a later face-to-face consultation. IATV consultation led to an eventual diagnosis in 23 out of 25 patients, with one diagnosis being changed and one remaining uncertain. The IATV management plans were felt to be appropriate for all patients in study. Twelve patients were able to be discharged from hospital on the same day as IATV on the advice of the neurologist. It is therefore practical to assess patients admitted with neurological symptoms to distant hospitals using IATV and this may result in more efficient use of in-patient resources.

Educational Resource Management: An International Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glover, Derek; Levacic, Rosalind

2007-01-01

This book offers practical guidance on management of financial and real resources in schools and college, and critically evaluates current tensions involved in the area of educational resource management. It is essential reading for educational leaders who wish to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of their resource utilisation…

New technologies - How to assess environmental effects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sullivan, P. J.; Lavin, M. L.

1981-01-01

A method is provided for assessing the environmental effects of a room-and-pillar mining system (RP) and a new hydraulic borehole mining system (HBM). Before environmental assessment can begin, each technology is defined in terms of its engineering characteristics at both the conceptual and preliminary design stages. The mining sites are also described in order to identify the significant advantages and constraints for each system. This can be a basic physical and biological survey of the region at the conceptual stage, but a more specific representation of site characteristics is required at the preliminary stage. Assessment of potential environmental effects of each system at the conceptual design is critical to its hardware development and application. A checklist can be used to compare and identify the negative impacts of each method, outlining the resource affected, the type of impact involved, and the exact activity causing that impact. At the preliminary design stage, these impacts should be evaluated as a result of either utilization or alteration. Underground coal mining systems have three major utilization impacts - the total area disturbed, the total water resources withdrawn from other uses, and the overall energy efficiency of the process - and one major alteration impact - the degradation of water quality by sedimentation and acid contamination. A comparison of the RP and HBM systems shows the HBM to be an environmentally less desirable system for the Central Appalachia region.

The Value of the Freshwater Snail Dip Scoop Sampling Method in Macroinvertebrates Bioassessment of Sugar Mill Wastewater Pollution in Mbandjock, Cameroon

PubMed Central

Takougang, Innocent; Barbazan, Phillipe; Tchounwou, Paul B.; Noumi, Emmanuel

2008-01-01

Macroinvertebrates identification and enumeration may be used as a simple and affordable alternative to chemical analysis in water pollution monitoring. However, the ecological responses of various taxa to pollution are poorly known in resources-limited tropical countries. While freshwater macroinvertebrates have been used in the assessment of water quality in Europe and the Americas, investigations in Africa have mainly focused on snail hosts of human parasites. There is a need for sampling methods that can be used to assess both snails and other macroinvertebrates. The present study was designed to evaluate the usefulness of the freshwater snail dip scoop method in the study of macroinvertebrates for the assessment of the SOSUCAM sugar mill effluents pollution. Standard snail dip scoop samples were collected upstream and downstream of the factory effluent inputs, on the Mokona and Mengoala rivers. The analysis of the macroinvertebrate communities revealed the absence of Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera, and the thriving of Syrphidae in the sections of the rivers under high effluent load. The Shannon & Weaver diversity index was lower in these areas. The dip scoop sampling protocol was found to be a useful method for macroinvertebrates collection. Hence, this method is recommended as a simple, cost-effective and efficient tool for the bio-assessment of freshwater pollution in developing countries with limited research resources. PMID:18441407

The value of the freshwater snail dip scoop sampling method in macroinvertebrates bioassessment of sugar mill wastewater pollution in Mbandjock, Cameroon.

PubMed

Takougang, Innocent; Barbazan, Phillipe; Tchounwou, Paul B; Noumi, Emmanuel

2008-03-01

Macroinvertebrates identification and enumeration may be used as a simple and affordable alternative to chemical analysis in water pollution monitoring. However, the ecological responses of various taxa to pollution are poorly known in resources-limited tropical countries. While freshwater macroinvertebrates have been used in the assessment of water quality in Europe and the Americas, investigations in Africa have mainly focused on snail hosts of human parasites. There is a need for sampling methods that can be used to assess both snails and other macroinvertebrates. The present study was designed to evaluate the usefulness of the freshwater snail dip scoop method in the study of macroinvertebrates for the assessment of the SOSUCAM sugar mill effluents pollution. Standard snail dip scoop samples were collected upstream and downstream of the factory effluent inputs, on the Mokona and Mengoala rivers. The analysis of the macroinvertebrate communities revealed the absence of Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera, and the thriving of Syrphidae in the sections of the rivers under high effluent load. The Shannon & Weaver diversity index was lower in these areas. The dip scoop sampling protocol was found to be a useful method for macroinvertebrates collection. Hence, this method is recommended as a simple, cost-effective and efficient tool for the bio-assessment of freshwater pollution in developing countries with limited research resources.

Proposing evidence-based strategies to strengthen implementation of healthcare reform in resource-limited settings: a summative analysis

PubMed Central

Manyazewal, Tsegahun; Oosthuizen, Martha J; Matlakala, Mokgadi C

2016-01-01

Objectives Many resource-limited countries have adopted and implemented healthcare reform to improve the quality of healthcare, but few have had much impact and strategies in support of these efforts remain limited. We aimed to explore and propose evidence-based strategies to strengthen implementation of healthcare reform in resource-limited settings. Design Descriptive and exploratory designs in two phases. Phase I involved assessing the effectiveness of the healthcare reform implemented in Ethiopia in the form of business process reengineering, with evidence compiled from healthcare professionals through a self-administered questionnaire; and phase II involved proposing strategies and seeking consensus from experts using Delphi method. Setting Public hospitals in central Ethiopia. Participants 406 healthcare professionals and 10 senior health policy experts. Findings The healthcare reform that we evaluated was able to restructure hospital departments into case teams, with the goal of adopting a ‘one-stop shopping’ approach. However, shortages of critical infrastructure, furniture and supplies and job dissatisfaction continued to hamper the system. The most important predictors that influenced implementation of the reform were financial resources, top management commitment and support, collaborative working environment and information technology (IT). Five strategies with 14 operational objectives and 67 potential interventions that could strengthen the reform are proposed based on their strategic priority, which are as follows: reinforce patient-centred quality of care services; foster a healthy and respectful workforce environment; efficient and accountable leadership and governance; efficient use of hospital financing and maximise innovations and the use of health technologies. Conclusions Effective implementation of healthcare reform remained a challenge for governments in resource-limited settings. Resilient operational, clinical and governance functions of health systems, as well as a motivated and committed health workforce, are important to move healthcare reform processes forward. Political commitments at this juncture might be critical though there need to be a clear demarcation between political and technical engagements. PMID:27650769

Quantifying green water flows for improved Integrated Land and Water Resource Management under the National Water Act of South Africa: A review on hydrological research in South Africa.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jarmain, C.; Everson, C. S.; Gush, M. B.; Clulow, A. D.

2009-09-01

The contribution of hydrological research in South Africa in quantifying green water flows for improved Integrated Land and Water Resources Management is reviewed. Green water refers to water losses from land surfaces through transpiration (seen as a productive use) and evaporation from bare soil (seen as a non-productive use). In contrast, blue water flows refer to streamflow (surface water) and groundwater / aquifer recharge. Over the past 20 years, a number of methods have been used to quantify the green water and blue water flows. These include micrometeorological techniques (e.g. Bowen ratio energy balance, eddy covariance, surface renewal, scintillometry, lysimetry), field scale models (e.g. SWB, SWAP), catchment scale hydrological models (e.g. ACRU, SWAT) and more recently remote sensing based models (e.g. SEBAL, SEBS). The National Water Act of South Africa of 1998 requires that water resources are managed, protected and used (developed, conserved and controlled) in an equitable way which is beneficial to the public. The quantification of green water flows in catchments under different land uses has been pivotal in (a) regulating streamflow reduction activities (e.g. forestry) and the management of alien invasive plants, (b) protecting riparian and wetland areas through the provision of an ecological reserve, (c) assessing and improving the water use efficiency of irrigated pastures, fruit tree orchards and vineyards, (d) quantifying the potential impact of future land uses like bio-fuels (e.g. Jatropha) on water resources, (e) quantifying water losses from open water bodies, and (f) investigating "biological” mitigation measures to reduce the impact of polluted water resources as a result of various industries (e.g. mining). This paper therefore captures the evolution of measurement techniques applied across South Africa, the impact these results have had on water use and water use efficiency and the extent to which it supported the National Water Act of South Africa.

NREL: Renewable Resource Data Center - Geothermal Resource Information

Science.gov Websites

Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Geothermal Technologies Program. Its collection , and thermal springs. View NREL's Geothermal resource maps as well as maps for other renewable energy Geothermal Resource Information Geothermal Prospector Start exploring U.S. geothermal resources

(Power sector integrated efficiency program): Foreign trip report, August 1--11, 1989

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Waddle, D.B.

1989-08-18

I traveled to Guatemala City to discuss host country and US Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission interest in an AID/Washington sponsored integrated utility efficiency initiative and to participate in a cogeneration conference. Discussions were held with USAID/Regional Office for Central America Panama (ROCAP), USAID/Guatemala City, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), the Empresa Electrica de Guatemala, and several members of the private sector regarding interest and the appropriateness of the proposed efficiency initiative. I then traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica to participate in a small scale hydro assessment study with a National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)more » engineer for a newly formed generation and transmission consortium. Data were gathered both on member cooperative annual, seasonal and diurnal energy demand, as well as engineering data for the site analyses. Meetings were held with the cooperative members; USAID/San Jose; and the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mines to inform them of our progress.« less