Search results for "Extern"
showing 10 items of 646 documents
The emergence of a shared action ontology: building blocks for a theory.
2003
To have an ontology is to interpret a world. In this paper we argue that the brain, viewed as a representational system aimed at interpreting our world, possesses an ontology too. It creates primitives and makes existence assumptions. It decomposes target space in a way that exhibits a certain invariance, which in turn is functionally significant. We will investigate which are the functional regularities guiding this decomposition process, by answering to the following questions: What are the explicit and implicit assumptions about the structure of reality, which at the same time shape the causal profile of the brain's motor output and its representational deep structure, in particular of t…
Economic valuation of environmental benefits from wastewater treatment processes: An empirical approach for Spain
2009
Economic research into the design and implementation of policies for the efficient management of water resources has been emphasized by the European Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC). The efficient implementation of policies to prevent the degradation and depletion of water resources requires determining their value in social and economic terms and incorporating this information into the decision-making process. A process of wastewater treatment has many associated environmental benefits. However, these benefits are often not calculated because they are not set by the market, due to inadequate property rights, the presence of externalities, and the lack of perfect information…
Positional goods and social welfare: a note on George Pendleton Watkins’ neglected contribution
2018
Watkins's analysis of adventitious utility contains many aspects that are connected to the contemporary debate on positional goods. First, Watkins adventitious utility emerges from a process of social exclusion and can create negative externalities, in the sense that positive consumption of one individual implies negative consumption by another individual. Not only it creates negative externalities on other individuals, but it can initiate a race-to-the-bottom, where individuals waste an increasing amount of money on goods which do not possess any real utility.
Farmers' costs of environmental regulation: Reducing the consumption of nitrogen in citrus farming
2007
Abstract Environmental externalities in agriculture, and the choice of suitable instruments to integrate environmental concerns into agricultural policies, are a matter of interest for the Common Agricultural Policy. In this paper, we use Data Envelopment Analysis techniques to assess the impact on farms' performance of two environmentally-friendly regulations aimed at abating consumption of inorganic nitrogen in Spanish citrus farming: levies on purchased nitrogen and nitrogen use permits for farms. By comparing farms' short-run maximum profits under both unregulated and regulated scenarios a regulation cost index is computed. Our results show that nitrogen overuse is mostly a matter of ma…
Meeting the environmental challenge of port growth: A critical appraisal of the contingent valuation method and an application to Valencia Port, Spain
2012
In order to support effective policy-making, this research is aimed to emphasise the need of measuring the negative impact - or external costs - resulting from port growth. Considering the non-market nature of these external costs, a critical appraisal of the Contingent Valuation method is made paying special attention to the problem of hypothetical bias and the suitability of a willingness to accept (WTA) scenario for damage assessment. Finally, the results of a case study, conducted in Valencia (Spain), are presented with the intention of paving the way for future research in this specific context of port growth and negative externalities. In particular, results indicate that the average …
Port–City Relationship and the Environment: Literature Survey and Methodological Approach for Project Appraisal in Presence of Environmental External…
2015
AbstractIn times of increasing environmental awareness, the port–city relationship has gained new meaning because ports have been seen as the origin of both negative and positive externalities affecting public welfare. While the former are the result of port expansion, the latter are the result of transforming obsolete port areas into recreational facilities. Therefore, to support effective policymaking, this paper considers the following question: What is the scope of economic valuation of these externalities in the context of port-project appraisal? Considering their nonmarket nature, which makes economic valuation more difficult, a contingent valuation method is introduced as an economic…
9 Development of an experimental tool to evaluate normal tissue 3D doses in external-beam radiotherapy
2018
Introduction Recently, cancer treatment improvement enabled an increase in patients’ survival rate. In more than half of the cases, radiotherapy participates in the cure for cancer. The efficacy of this technique is well known but it inevitably delivers doses to normal tissues exposing them to radio-induced complications risks [1] . Moreover, the longer patients’ life expectancy increases the risk of developing long-term complications such as second cancers. Thus, evaluating the risks following cancer treatment involving radiotherapy constitutes a major challenge. In this context, an experimental tool has been developed to evaluate normal tissue doses delivered by the different radiotherapy…
The Role of Internal Audit in Fraud Prevention and Detection
2014
Abstract This article aims to not just briefly describe the role of the internal audit in the detection of possible frauds, but also to highlight its importance in preventing the commission of frauds in any economic entity. Moreover, the analysis intends to especially point out the advantages that an internal audit can offer to the management of an economic entity and its partners, and to the society as a whole as well. Starting from the premise that auditors are not the adversaries of an entity, one should remember that: the internal audit is a function of assistance offered to the leadership of that entity in order for them to better manage their activities; it expresses judgments on all …
Internal Public Audit in the Financial Crisis Context
2013
Abstract The financial crisis effects have left their mark on the area of internal audit, but the attention on the responsibility that internal auditors could have in preventing the onset of such a crisis is quite low. Audit plays a vital role in the entities functioning by contributing to economic credibility. In this paper we have presented the role and objectives of internal audit, the organization and activity of internal audit in local government in Romania, the outsourced system and how it helped in preventing and/or managing the economic downturn.
Megacities without Global Functions.
2007
Present urban evolution is characterized by two major phenomena. On the one hand, the number of very large cities, the megacities, increases dramatically, especially in the less developed countries (LDCs). On the other hand, globalization leads to the emergence of cities coordinating complex and global economic activities, the global cities, especially in the more developed countries (MDCs). So, the two phenomena are diverging. A number of megacities do not exhibit any global function.The global performances of megacities are well correlated with their degree of economic development. But it is worth wondering why economic underdevelopment is consistent with urban growth but not with city gl…