Search results for "External"
showing 10 items of 601 documents
Environmental externalities and efficiency measurement.
2009
Production of desirable outputs often produces by-products that have harmful effects on the environment. This paper investigates technologies where the biggest good output producer is not the greatest polluter, i.e. technologies located on the downward-sloping segment of the frontier depicted in Fare et al. (1989). Directional distance functions and Data Envelopment Analysis techniques are used to define an algorithm that allows them to be identified empirically. Furthermore, we show that in such situations producers can contribute social goods, i.e. reducing polluting wastes, without limiting their capacity to maximise production of marketable output. Finally, we illustrate our methodology…
Simple method of estimating consumption of internal combustion engine for hybrid application
2012
This article presents two simple methods to evaluate the fuel consumption of internal combustion engines. Furthermore, it points out the link between piston volume, engine size and fuel consumption as it gives the possibility to visualize the chosen working points inside an internal combustion engine operation points map. This leads to the fact that this approach is a very helpful tool for the design of hybrid systems including internal combustion engines. The two presented methods, one very simple, one more elaborated, are interesting as first approach of internal combustion engine sizing and to evaluate the consumption of internal combustion engine. The results for six pure internal combu…
Morally Successful Collaboration between Academia and Industry — A Case of a Project Course
2006
Academia-industry collaboration is common in the IT-field, and it includes training programs, research centre activities, and industry advisory boards (Watson and Huber 2000). For the industry, co-operation provides possibilities to acquire human resources and, for the academia, co-operation ensures that research and teaching activities are relevant. Regardless of its popularity little is known about moral issues relating to this phenomenon. This study intends to fill the gap in knowledge by determining the nature of moral conflicts perceived by clients, students, and instructors of a collaborative project course, and by formulating a framework to successfully getting grips with these confl…
Experimental characterization of PEM fuel cells by micro-models for the prediction of on-site performance
2009
This paper presents the results of an experimental analysis performed on a miniaturized, 6 We Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) system, integrated with on-site hydrogen production by electrolysis; in particular, the effects of environmental parameters such as the external temperature and the humidity on the performance of fuel cells are investigated. PEMFC systems are zero-emissions power technologies when they are fed with pure hydrogen (at concentration higher than 97%); also, being the only results of system operation the produced electricity and some pure water, when produced by renewable sources hydrogen can be considered an attractive alternative to fossil fuels and may concu…
Human energy interacting interface: Interface to transform environmental energy into human acquired energy
2016
The human body acquires energy in many form to manage their activities. This energy enters into human body in the form of food, beverages or any other external source. Few of the vital nutrients are injected into human body via supplementary medicines, etc. Some of the required energy of human body is absorbed naturally from the environment (e.g. vitamin D through sunlight). Human body absorbs limited energy / nutrients from the environment due to lack of proper transformation of energy aspects of human body. Due to this there is requirement of an interface which can help in transforming the environmental energy for fulfilling some aspects of the human body energy requirements. To understan…
SmartLeg: An intelligent active robotic prosthesis for lower-limb amputees
2011
In recent years, there has been a worldwide interest in improvement of mobility of people with lower limb amputation. In spite of significant development of new technologies during the last decade, commercial below-knee and above-knee prostheses are still energetically passive devices. However, many locomotive functions, like walking up stairs and slopes, need significant power in knee and ankle joints. The additional power for doing previously mentioned activities needs to be achieved by means of external energy sources, which should be integral prosthetic components. This paper presents preliminary investigations towards an active robotic prosthesis that could potentially enable people wi…
Intangible capital and business productivity in the hotel industry
2019
Intangible capital is a key factor of productivity growth. This paper analyses how the internal intangible capital of the company and external intangible capital influence its productivity. This contribution focuses on the hotel industry since it is a key industry of the Spanish economy, such that any increase in its productivity has an impact on the entire economy. Both, the intangible capital of the company and that of the region in which the company is located are considered as determinants of productivity. Likewise, the importance of other agglomeration economies in the productivity of hotel companies is taken into account. A model estimates firm level determinants of productivity, cont…
Shadow prices of emerging pollutants in wastewater treatment plants: Quantification of environmental externalities.
2017
Conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are designed to remove mainly the organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus compounds and suspended solids from wastewater but are not capable of removing chemicals of human origin, such as pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs). The presence of PPCPs in wastewater has environmental effects on the water bodies receiving the WWTP effluents and renders the effluent as unsuitable as a nonconventional water source. Considering PPCPs as non-desirable outputs, the shadow prices methodology has been implemented using the output distance function to measure the environmental benefits of removing five PPCPs (acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen…
Estimating the environmental and resource costs of leakage in water distribution systems: A shadow price approach.
2016
Water scarcity is one of the main problems faced by many regions in the XXIst century. In this context, the need to reduce leakages from water distribution systems has gained almost universal acceptance. The concept of sustainable economic level of leakage (SELL) has been proposed to internalize the environmental and resource costs within economic level of leakage calculations. However, because these costs are not set by the market, they have not often been calculated. In this paper, the directional-distance function was used to estimate the shadow price of leakages as a proxy of their environmental and resource costs. This is a pioneering approach to the economic valuation of leakage exter…
Physical demands during 3×3 international male and female basketball games are partially impacted by competition phase but not game outcome
2021
Despite the increased popularity and number of international competitions for 3 × 3 basketball, the precise physical demands of this sport are not well described. Therefore, this study aimed to quantify the physical demands of 3 × 3 basketball games according to game outcome and competition phase. Following an observational design, video footage from 27 games were analysed from 104 international 3 × 3 basketball players (n = 52 male and n = 52 female players) belonging to 26 national teams (n = 13 male and n = 13 female teams) during the 2019 FIBA 3 × 3 World Cup. Manual frame-by-frame time-motion analyses were conducted to determine the relative frequency (n · min−1) and duration (% of liv…