Search results for "cost"
showing 10 items of 5421 documents
Coûts de la sclérose en plaques en France
2014
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the 30 chronic conditions specifically listed by the French healthcare system as a long-term disease (affections de longue duree [ALD]) for which the main health insurance fund (Caisse nationale d'assurance maladie des travailleurs salaries [CNAMTS]) provides full (100%) coverage of healthcare costs. The CNAMTS insures 87% of the French population (52,359,912 of the 60,028,292 inhabitants). The objectives of this study were to evaluate the direct and indirect medical costs of MS among the entire population insured by the CNAMTS in France in 2004. The CNAMTS provided us with access to the ALD database of patients with MS that contains different MS-related ex…
Effects of network market orientation on new ventures' international performance
2013
By combining international entrepreneurship and marketing aspects, this work attempts to emphasise the importance of relational knowledge in international new ventures by studying the influence of network market orientation on the international results obtained by these firms. The results obtained in the comparison with the proposed structural equations model confirm that network market orientation is a determining factor for firms to achieve better international results. This influence is observed both directly and indirectly with the mediating effect on the differentiation– and cost–based competitive advantages developed by INVs.
The value of perfect and imperfect information in lake monitoring and management.
2020
Highlights • Knowledge on the value of monitoring can assist decision-making in lake management. • We calculate value of perfect information theoretically. • We estimate value of imperfect information with Monte Carlo type of approach. • Generally, monitoring is profitable to invest in if VOI exceeds the cost. • Additional monitoring is profitable even if the lake is in good condition a priori. Uncertainty in the information obtained through monitoring complicates decision making about aquatic ecosystems management actions. We suggest the value of information (VOI) to assess the profitability of paying for additional monitoring information, when taking into account the costs and benefits of…
Quantification of kinetic parameters for heterotrophic bacteria via respirometry in a hybrid reactor
2010
Over the last decade new technologies are emerging even more for wastewater treatment. Among the new technologies, a recent possible solution regards Moving Bed Biofilm Reactors (MBBRs) that represent an effective alternative to conventional processes. More specifically such systems consist in the introduction of plastic elements inside the aerobic reactor as carrier material for the growth of attached biomass. Recently, one of the mostly used alternatives is to couple the Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) process with the conventional activated sludge process, and the resulting process is usually called HMBBR (Hybrid MBBR). In the MBBR process the biofilm grows attached on small plastic el…
The potential of multilayer green roofs for stormwater management in urban area under semi-arid Mediterranean climate conditions
2022
Different low impact development measures have been proposed to make cities more flood-resilient, and recent literature is paying great attention to the evaluation of their direct benefits in terms of flood risk mitigation and the numerous co-benefits that they may offer. This study describes an experimental prototype of a technologically advanced multilayer green roof installed in a Mediterranean urban area (i.e., Palermo, Italy) and explores the results of an analysis of data collected over a one-year monitoring period by a complex sensors network. Multilayer green roofs, or "blue-green" roofs (BGRs), are characterized by a high water retention capacity compared to traditional green roofs…
A shoreline boundary condition for a highly nonlinear Boussinesq model for breaking waves
2012
Abstract A physically based strategy was used to model swash zone hydrodynamics forced by breaking waves within a Boussinesq type of model. The position and the velocity of the shoreline were determined continuously in space by solving the physically-based equations of the shoreline motion; moreover, a fixed grid method, with a wet–dry interface, was adopted for integrating the Boussinesq model. The numerical stability of the model was improved by means of an extrapolation method. To validate the proposed methodology, the classical analytical solution for the shoreline motion of a monochromatic wave train over a plane beach was considered. The comparison between the analytical and numerical…
The relevance of the design characteristics to the optimal operation of wastewater treatment plants: Energy cost assessment
2018
Operational parameters of the wastewater treatment process do not always fit the design ones for several reasons, such as the seasonality or an inaccurate estimation of the population connected. This fact has an effect on the performance of the Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) and their energy costs. The aim of this paper is to develop a cost function for the energy cost that takes into account the mismatching between the design and the operational inflow. For this purpose, a performance index is constructed in order to represent how far the operational inflow is from the design one, and will be included in the cost model. Moreover, three cost functions, depending on the size of the plan…
Nutrient mitigation under the impact of climate and land-use changes: A hydro-economic approach to participatory catchment management
2020
Abstract Excessive nutrient loadings into rivers are a well-known ecological problem. Implemented mitigation measures should ideally be cost-effective, but perfectly ranking alternative nutrient mitigation measures according to cost-effectiveness is a difficult methodological challenge. Furthermore, a particularly practical challenge is that cost-effective measures are not necessarily favoured by local stakeholders, and this may impede their successful implementation in practice. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of mitigation measures using a methodology that includes a participatory process and social learning to ensure their successful implementation. By …
The influence of rainfall time resolution for urban water quality modelling
2010
The objective of this paper is the definition of a methodology to evaluate the impact of the temporal resolution of rainfall measurements in urban drainage modelling applications. More specifically the effect of the temporal resolution on urban water quality modelling is detected analysing the uncertainty of the response of rainfall–runoff modelling. Analyses have been carried out using historical rainfall–discharge data collected for the Fossolo catchment (Bologna, Italy). According to the methodology, the historical rainfall data are taken as a reference, and resampled data have been obtained through a rescaling procedure with variable temporal windows. The shape comparison between ‘true’…
Low cost-sensors as a real alternative to on-line nitrogen analysers in continuous systems.
2009
This paper is focused on the evaluation of the applicability of low-cost sensors (pH and ORP) versus nutrient analysers for controlling biological nitrogen removal in WWTPs. A nutrient removal pilot plant located in Carraixet WWTP (Valencia, Spain) that is equipped with a significant number of nutrient analysers and low-cost sensors was used. The relations between reliable, cheap on-line sensors such as pH and ORP (located in anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic zones) and the nitrification/denitrification processes are provided. The nitrification process can be evaluated by measuring the pH difference between the first and last aerobic zones. The denitrification process can be evaluated by measur…