Towards the adoption of technological innovations: decision processes in transport policy definition

The widespread of technological innovations is rapidly changing the way modern societies are organized. Such phenomenon highly affects the economy of most developed countries (and, more recently, of developing countries, too), influencing work organization and habits. Besides, technological innovations modify the way in which transport systems are organized, by introducing new transport solutions as well as by upgrading the performances of the existing transport systems, in accordance to a more efficient organization. Several tools have been designed to predict the effects of the adoption of technological innovations in transport. The aim of this paper is to deal with the decision processes involved in the definition of the transport policies for the introduction of such technological solutions. To do this the way in which the new transport solutions affect the local context is analysed. In particular, this work aim to identify the most relevant attributes which influence the decision processes on the adoption of such technological solutions, with reference to their impact on the territory and on the economic activities. To do this, the analysis focuses on the effects involved by the use of wireless technologies and radio frequency identification into seaport infrastructures. Such technologies enable an easier identification of goods in transport terminals; this implies advantages in the organization of the terminal activities, allowing lower time and costs for handling, and at the same time it ensures a greater compliance to security requirements, thus upgrading the level of the performances in these transport systems. On the other hand, the effects of the improvements in transport systems affect the economic context in which transport infrastructures are set. Thus, the adoption of such a technological innovation can represent the chance for local development of the region, due to the better performances of the transport system and to the consequent increased territorial accessibility.

Electrochemical energy storage systems for solar thermal applications

Existing and advanced electrochemical storage and inversion/conversion systems that may be used with terrestrial solar-thermal power systems are evaluated. The status, cost and performance of existing storage systems are assessed, and the cost, performance, and availability of advanced systems are projected. A prime consideration is the cost of delivered energy from plants utilizing electrochemical storage. Results indicate that the five most attractive electrochemical storage systems are the: iron-chromium redox (NASA LeRC), zinc-bromine (Exxon), sodium-sulfur (Ford), sodium-sulfur (Dow), and zinc-chlorine (EDA)

LEPs – living up to the hype? The changing framework for regional economic development and localism in the UK

From when the idea of local enterprise partnerships was first floated in the run-up to the May 2010 general election, there has been fervent discussion and steadfast work by the Coalition government to replace the nine regional development agencies of England with the new LEPS. Vince Cable MP called the decision to abolish the RDAs the Coalition’s “Maoist moment”. Thirteen years of work to establish a comprehensive system of regional development for England has since been abolished and abandoned. The philosophy and rationale for the establishment of the RDAs was set out in the 1997 white paper Building Partnerships for Prosperity: Sustainability, Growth, Competitiveness and Employment in the English Regions. Their main promoter was John Prescott MP, then deputy prime minister under the Blair government. This chapter examines whether LEPs are living up to the hype

Rebalancing techniques for station-based bike sharing systems

With bike-sharing systems that utilize fixed rent and drop off stations becoming popular in cities and metropolitan areas worldwide, the issue of station fill balance becomes apparent. It is important for the user experience and the organization's bottom line that bikes are available at the stations where they are needed and that stations do not become too crowded and thus prevent easy returns. There is not, however, a clear solution of how to perform this rebalancing. Considerations include how to determine the stations that most need to be rebalanced, how frequently to do this rebalancing in the system, and how many resources to expend doing it. Methodologies answering some of these questions have been proposed, but many do not provide all of the answers necessary to fully implement a real-world solution. Additionally, there is no benchmarking tool to fairly compare these rebalancing approaches on a given system. This thesis proposes exactly this kind of tool in the form of a station-based bike-sharing system simulator. The simulator is modular and provides several parameters to allow the comparison of different systems, historical data, workloads, and rebalancing strategies. To demonstrate its capabilities, experiments were run comparing the effects of individual parameter changes and various combinations of parameter configurations on various metrics, including gross revenue and lost revenue from missed demand. Analysis of these experimental results gives not only a look into the simulation's uses as a comparative tool, but also provides information on alternatives to common predictive rebalancing strategies

Comments on the RGGI Market Design

Auctions, carbon auctions, greenhouse gas auctions

An Emerging Middle Ground?: An Analysis of Health Reform Positions

Outlines the debate over and initial policy proposals for controversial elements of healthcare reform, including an insurance exchange, a public plan, individual mandates, government involvement in comparative effectiveness research, and payment reform

Optimal Price Regulation for Natural and Legal Monopolies

Optimal price regulation for natural and legal monopolies is an impossible task. The still difficult .task of good price regulation can be systematized by considering separately price level and price structure of the regulated firm. Various methods of price level and price structure regulation are evaluated and then considered for the regulation of electricity transmission, both in the context of an independent transmission company and of vertical integration between transmission and most of the generation capacity. The regulatory approach suggested uses price caps defined on two-part tariffs. This way, flexibility for short-term capacity utilization can be combined with incentives for investments in new transmission capacity.

Improving Emergency Department Capacity Efficiency

Objective. The demand for emergency services has risen dramatically around the world. Many Emergency Departments (EDs) have signs of low capacity efficiency (which we define as the rate at which a production facility with limited resources can convert input into output); insufficient resources (staffing, equipment, facilities), inefficient ways to use them, or both. Our purpose was to investigate how to improve ED capacity efficiency through layout planning and present some novel ideas of ED bottlenecks. Methods. We adopted an industrial engineering perspective to one Finnish ED as a case example. In contrary to a simple case report we used more generalizable methods and demand-supply chain analysis to improve capacity efficiency. Results. This study resulted in concrete and generalizable improvements of capacity efficiency concerning both ED premises and staffing. The former includes designing patient locations, organizing beds, improving space usage and optimizing an ED layout. The latter identified the demand for different specialties and optimal allocation of nursing staff. Conclusion. We present a rather unique combination of ways to enhance ED functionality by using methods of industrial engineering