Search results for "saving"

Modelling hybrid systems for seawater desalination: electromembrane processes (RED, ARED and ED) coupled with RO

2018

The need to reduce energy consumption in seawater reverse osmosis processes has pushed research towards the development of new hybrid systems in which, for example, other membrane processes can be used to pre-treat seawater. Electrodialysis and reverse electrodialysis can act as a dilution step before seawater enters the RO unit, thus leading to an important energy saving in RO. In this work, two coupled models are proposed for the RED-RO and ED-RO system. Each process model was validated before being used for a sensitivity analysis in which the effect of the integration on the cost saving in the overall process was assessed. The analysis was performed by changing (R)ED voltage and RO press…

Intelligent Management Systems for Energy Efficiency in Buildings: A Survey

2014

In recent years, reduction of energy consumption in buildings has increasingly gained interest among researchers mainly due to practical reasons, such as economic advantages and long-term environmental sustainability. Many solutions have been proposed in the literature to address this important issue from complementary perspectives, which are often hard to capture in a comprehensive manner. This survey article aims at providing a structured and unifying treatment of the existing literature on intelligent energy management systems in buildings, with a distinct focus on available architectures and methodology supporting a vision transcending the well-established smart home vision, in favor o…

Melanoma Extirpation with Immediate Reconstruction

2017

Letter to Editor

A Need for a Paradigm Shift in the Spanish Banking Sector? The Evolution from Regional to Multinational Banks in Spain.

2014

Since the approval of Spain¿s 2012 National Budget on March 30, 2012, some doubts and controversies have added up to many fears in the private sector regarding the measures and stimuli that the Spanish government was going to undertake. At the same time, this situation was in some measure aggravated by the financial backlog of many small and medium companies, which are and will continue, in the following years to be completely unable to comply with their financial requirements. In line with Boronat Ombuena¿s (2009a, 2009b, 2010, 2012) requirements in his new approach to finance and private sector liaisons, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the recent years of the credit …

Interest rate gaps in an uncertain global context: why "too" low (high) for "so" long?

2022

We study the behaviour of real interest rate gaps-i.e. periods of real interest rates above (below) the natural interest rate-and link their length with a set of key observable determinants. Using quarterly data for 13 OECD countries over (close to) the last 60 years, we find that global risk-taking, CPI inflation, (un)conventional monetary policy, and income redistribution crucially shape the duration of both events. However, while labour-related supply-side factors appear to affect the length of positive interest rate gaps, the adoption of an inflation targeting regime and the current account balance seem to explain the duration of negative interest rate gaps. Our results suggest that the…

The Structure and Behavioural Effects of Revealed Social Identity Preferences

2020

A large body of evidence shows that social identity affects behaviour. However, our understanding of the substantial variation of these behavioural effects is still limited. We use a novel laboratory experiment to measure differences in preferences for social identities as a potential source of behavioural heterogeneity. Facing a trade-off between monetary payments and belonging to different groups, individuals are willing to forego significant earnings to avoid belonging to certain groups. We then show that individual differences in these foregone earnings correspond to the differences in discriminatory behaviour towards these groups. Our results illustrate the importance of considering in…

Guidelines to compare additive and subtractive manufacturing approaches under the energy demand perspective

2020

In order to characterise the environmental performance of additive manufacturing (AM) processes, comparative analyses are required. Different manufacturing approaches (such as additive and subtractive ones), besides adopting different equipment, use different kinds and amounts of material. Therefore, the material-related flow has to be followed throughout the entire product life. Differences in environmental impact arise at each step of the life cycle: material production, manufacturing, use, disposal, and transportation. A life cycle-based methodology able to take due account of all the factors of influence on the total energy demand for the production of metal components is given in this …

Energy and Resource efficient Forming Processes

2010

Tax benefits for the energy requalification of Italian real estate assets

2020

The need for energy-efficient buildings has emerged since the onset of the first energy crises in the 1970s. It's in this decade that the concepts of sustainable development and energy saving have been introduced in the construction sector. Currently, the greatest energy saving potential for buildings does not lie in new buildings, but in the energy redevelopment of existing buildings. In order to promote interventions for building restoration, which are often costly and not economically convenient, Italian legislation has made a series of economic incentives available to the sector. This work reviews the main incentive systems for the energy requalification of buildings.

Comparison of different revenue models in SaaS

2012

Cloud computing brings new possibilities for software firms to sell their products within a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. However, although SaaS provides new revenue models, it may not easily achieve a profitable revenue stream. For customers, SaaS promises cost savings related to IT expenses. However, it may be difficult to estimate which revenue model will be best for a given situation. In this paper I present the common revenue models used in SaaS, examining their advantages and disadvantages from the point of view of the software provider and the customer. Keywords-Revenue models, SaaS, Cloud computing, Business in cloud