Is small beautiful? A multicriteria assessment of small-scale energy technology applications in local governments

In its 2003 White Paper the UK government set ambitious renewable energy targets. Local governments and households have an increasing role in the overall energy system as consumers, suppliers of smaller-scale applications and citizens discussing energy projects. In this paper, we consider if small-scale or large-scale approaches to renewable energy provision can achieve energy targets in the most socially, economically and environmentally (SEE) effective way. We take a local case study of renewable energy provision in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in Yorkshire, UK, and apply a multi-criteria decision analysis methodology to compare the small-scale schemes implemented in Kirklees with large-scale alternatives. The results indicate that small-scale schemes are the most SEE effective, despite large-scale schemes being more financially viable. The selection of the criteria on which the alternatives are assessed and the assigned weights for each criterion are of crucial importance. It is thus very important to include the relevant stakeholders to elicit this information

Qualitative modelling of credit scoring : a case study in banking

Several modelling procedures have been suggested in the literature that aim to help credit granting decisions. Most of these utilize statistical, operational research and artificial intelligence techniques to identify patterns among past applications, in order to enable a more well-informed assessment of risk as well as the automation of credit scoring. For some types of loans, we find that the modelling procedure must permit the consideration of qualitative expert judgements concerning the performance attractiveness of the applications. In this paper, we describe in detail the various steps taken to build such a model in the context of the banking sector, using the MACBETH interactive approach. The model addresses the scoring of medium and long term loans to firms, to enable the multicriteria assignment of each application to a category which may range from rejection to acceptance with different spreads.peer-reviewe

The potential gonadoprotective effects of grape seed extract against the histopathological alterations elicited in an animal model of cadmium-induced testicular toxicity

Background: Grape seed extract (GSE) is a powerful antioxidant containing high levels of bioflavonoids, vitamin C and vitamin E. The aim of the work is to study the possible protective and ameliorative effects of grape seed extract in an animal model of cadmium (Cd)-induced testicular toxicity in rats.Materials and methods: A thirty-day oral gavage study in adult male albino rats was performed using 32 animals, randomly divided into four equal groups; negative control, Cd (5 mg/k/day), GSE (100 mg/k/day), and Cd + GSE. Testicular weights were measured. Haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and proliferating nuclear cell antigen (PCNA) immunohistochemistry, as a marker for proliferation were done. Morphometric parameters were assessed and subjected to statistical analysis.Results: The H&E results showed atrophy and distortion of the seminiferous tubules (STs) with sloughing of the spermatogenic epithelium in cadmium group. The interstitial spaces were widened and showed oedema and mononuclear cell infiltrations. No remarkable changes were observed in the GSE-only group when compared to the control group. In Cd + GSE group, maintaining of the STs and their lining cells was evident. The immunohistochemical results showed marked positive PCNA immunoreactivity in both control and GSE groups, while negative immunoreaction was noticed in Cd group. Limited positive PCNA immunoreactivity was ameliorated in Cd + GSE group.Conclusions: Grape seed extract protected against cadmium-induced testicular toxicity in rats, reducing induced histopathological changes, and maintaining testicular histoarchitecture

Welphi, procesos parcipativos Delphi em base web

Con autorización del autorEsta charla empieza con una presentación de los errores más comunes en la construcción de un modelo de valores. A continuación, se sugiere cómo evitarlos con el método multicriterio MACBETH (Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique). Se dan ejemplos de cómo MACBETH ayuda a comparar opciones y ponderar criterios de evaluación basado sólo en juicios cualitativos de diferencia de valor. El caso Euro-Healthy se presenta para mostrar el desarrollo en la web de un proceso socio-técnico MACBETH que permite la participación de un elevado número de participantes, de manera complementaria o alternativa a conferencias de decisión en grupo.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Outage Analysis of Downlink URLLC in Massive MIMO systems with Power Allocation

Massive MIMO is seen as a main enabler for low-latency communications, thanks to its high spatial degrees of freedom. The channel hardening and favorable propagation properties of Massive MIMO are particularly important for multiplexing several URLLC devices. However, the actual utility of channel hardening and spatial multiplexing is dependent critically on the accuracy of channel knowledge. When several low-latency devices are multiplexed, the cost for acquiring accurate knowledge becomes critical, and it is not evident how many devices can be served with a latency-reliability requirement and how many pilot symbols should be allocated. This paper investigates the trade-off between achieving high spectral efficiency and high reliability in the downlink, by employing various power allocation strategies, for maximum ratio and minimum mean square error precoders. The results show that using max-min SINR power allocation achieves the best reliability, at the expense of lower sum spectral efficiency

The role perceptions of DEOs in Pakistan : Toothless tigers or selfless servants?

The study of educational leadership and management in Pakistan is relatively a new territory – a road less travelled. This is truer when it comes to the study of District Education Officials’ (DEOs) ways of managing education. These officials actually bridge the government higher functionaries and policies in terms of policy implementation, monitoring and supervision of the schools in their respective districts. These officials theoretically should exercise significant control over the functioning of schools in their jurisdiction. Though on paper they have heavy responsibilities but actually they have limited arena to exercise; their power due largely to complex web of power centres in their respective provinces. A small-scale exploratory case study was undertaken in qualitative research paradigm to investigate the perceptions and practices of the district educational officials in Pakistan. The sample of the study was drawn from the eleven districts of Baluchistan, eleven districts of Sindh, and ten officials from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) who were selected for their professional development at AKU-IED under an USAID/ED-LINKS Project during 2008-2010. The study investigated these DEOs’ self-perceived roles and responsibilities through mainly interviews. Some head teachers were also interviewed to see how they view the roles and responsibilities of these senior officials. As well, the headteachers, who were also participating in the same course, were asked to comment about the DEOs’ role and what that means to their schools. Moreover, the DEOs were also asked to comment on their learnings during their certificate course programme. The findings of the study reveal that DEOs perceive their roles as more administrative, at best management and hardly leadership. Reportedly, they do this work very often in trying circumstances, pressurized by political influences, local traditions, tribal dynamics, and uncertain law and order situations. They feel almost besieged with debilitating rather than enabling circumstances. Despite these limitations, they try their best to do at least the minimum they are required; but find it difficult to go beyond. Self-efficacy in this case is in short supply; though some do claim that they are able to accomplish what they can; in the given circumstances. Though good intentions are in abundance but materializing them is a herculean task for them. They appear to be the toothless tigers; as they appear to be senior government officials but their actual influence on their area of operation appears too little; they cannot account even their humblest employees due to many reasons, including political interference

Proof of Kolmogorovian Censorship

Many argued (Accardi and Fedullo, Pitowsky) that Kolmogorov's axioms of classical probability theory are incompatible with quantum probabilities, and this is the reason for the violation of Bell's inequalities. Szab\'o showed that, in fact, these inequalities are not violated by the experimentally observed frequencies if we consider the real, ``effective'' frequencies. We prove in this work a theorem which generalizes this result: ``effective'' frequencies associated to quantum events always admit a Kolmogorovian representation, when these events are collected through different experimental set ups, the choice of which obeys a classical distribution.Comment: 19 pages, LaTe

Pemanfaatan Smartphone Dalam Perkuliahan Kalkulus II: Bagaimana Persepsi Mahasiswa?

The aim of the research is to determine students' perceptions of using smartphones in Calculus II courses and provide knowledge about the importance of smartphones in Calculus II courses as a tool to strengthen student understanding and improve learning outcomes. The subjects in this research were 16 third semester students majoring in Informatics Engineering in regular and extension classes who had taken the Calculus II course in the even semester, selected randomly. The data collection method used was semi-structured interviews. then interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The results of the research were that 16 subjects interviewed agreed that smartphones were very helpful for students during the Calculus II lecture process in: 1) looking for additional material and example questions, 2) Makes it easier to complete college assignments, 3) Facilitates communication with friends and lecturers, 4) Utilize learning applications such as symbolab, geogebra, online calculator, brinly. The obstacles experienced by students in using smartphones in Calculus II courses are: 1) Expensive internet packages; 2) Difficult network access; 3) Mobile phone memory storage is small.Tujuan penelitian adalah untuk mengetahui persepsi mahasiswa dalam memanfaatkan smartphone pada mata kuliah kalkulus II dan memberikan pengetahuan tentang pentingnya smartphone dalam perkuliahan Kalkulus II sebagai alat bantu untuk memperkuat pemahaman mahasiswa dan meningkatkan hasil belajar. Subjek dalam penelitian ini sebanyak 16 mahasiswa semester III jurusan Teknik Informatika kelas reguler dan ekstensi yang pernah menempuh mata kuliah kalkulus II pada semester genap dipilih secara random. Metode pengumpulan data yang digunakan yaitu wawancara semi terstruktur.  kemudian di wawancarai menggunakan wawancara semi terstruktur. Hasil penelitian yaitu 16 subjek yang diwawancarai sepakat bahwa smartphone sangat membantu mahasiswa selama proses perkuliahan kalkulus II dalam: 1) mencari tambahan materi dan contoh soal, 2) Memudahkan dalam menyelesaikan tugas kuliah, 3) Memudahkan komunikasi dengan teman dan dosen, 4) Memanfaatkan aplikasi pembelajaran seperti symbolab, geogebra, kalkulator online, brinly. Adapun kendala yang dialami mahasiswa dalam memanfaakan smartphone pada kuliah kalkulus II, yaitu: 1) Paket internet mahal; 2) Akses jaringan yang sulit; 3) Penyimpanan memori handphone sedikit.&nbsp

Using MACBETH with the choquet integral fundamentals to model interdependencies between elementary concerns in the context of risk management

Effective risk management typically requires the evaluation of multiple consequences of different sources of risk, and multicriteria value models have been used for that purpose. The value of mitigating a risk impact is often considered by risk managers as dependent on the levels of other impacts, therefore there is a need for procedures to identify and model these interactions within a value measurement framework. The Choquet Integral (CI) has been used for this purpose, and several studies in the performance measurement literature have combined the 2-additive CI operator with the MACBETH approach to model interdependencies in real contexts. In this paper, we propose an alternative procedure to model interdependencies and determine the CI parameters from one single MACBETH global matrix. The procedure is illustrated with the construction of a descriptor of impacts to evaluate the risk impacts at ALSTOM Power. The paper further explains the questioning protocol to apply the proposed procedure, as well as how decision-makers can interpret the CI parameters