Using the stated preference method for the calculation of social discount rate

The aim of this paper is to build the stated preference method into the social discount rate methodology. The first part of the paper presents the results of a survey about stated time preferences through pair-choice decision situations for various topics and time horizons. It is assumed that stated time preferences differ from calculated time preferences and that the extent of stated rates depends on the time period, and on how much respondents are financially and emotionally involved in the transactions. A significant question remains: how can the gap between the calculation and the results of surveys be resolved, and how can the real time preferences of individuals be interpreted using a social time preference rate. The second part of the paper estimates the social time preference rate for Hungary using the results of the survey, while paying special attention to the pure time preference component. The results suggest that the current method of calculation of the pure time preference rate does not reflect the real attitudes of individuals towards future generations

Can biomedical and traditional health care providers work together? Zambian practitioners' experiences and attitudes towards collaboration in relation to STIs and HIV/AIDS care: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization's World health report 2006: Working together for health underscores the importance of human resources for health. The shortage of trained health professionals is among the main obstacles to strengthening low-income countries' health systems and to scaling up HIV/AIDS control efforts. Traditional health practitioners are increasingly depicted as key resources to HIV/AIDS prevention and care. An appropriate and effective response to the HIV/AIDS crisis requires reconsideration of the collaboration between traditional and biomedical health providers (THPs and BHPs). The aim of this paper is to explore biomedical and traditional health practitioners' experiences of and attitudes towards collaboration and to identify obstacles and potential opportunities for them to collaborate regarding care for patients with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study in two Zambian urban sites, using structured questionnaires. We interviewed 152 biomedical health practitioners (BHPs) and 144 traditional health practitioners (THPs) who reported attending to patients with STIs and HIV/AIDS. RESULTS: The study showed a very low level of experience of collaboration, predominated by BHPs training THPs (mostly traditional birth attendants) on issues of safe delivery. Intersectoral contacts addressing STIs and HIV/AIDS care issues were less common. However, both groups of providers overwhelmingly acknowledged the potential role of THPs in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Obstacles to collaboration were identified at the policy level in terms of legislation and logistics. Lack of trust in THPs by individual BHPs was also found to inhibit collaboration. Nevertheless, as many as 40% of BHPs expressed an interest in working more closely with THPs. CONCLUSION: There is indication that practitioners from both sectors seem willing to strengthen collaboration with each other. However, there are missed opportunities. The lack of collaborative framework integrating maternal health with STIs and HIV/AIDS care is at odds with the needed comprehensive approach to HIV/AIDS control. Also, considering the current human resources crisis in Zambia, substantial policy commitment is called for to address the legislative obstacles and the stigma reported by THPs and to provide an adequate distribution of roles between all partners, including traditional health practitioners, in the struggle against HIV/AIDS

Improved personalized comfort : a necessity for a smart Building

The reasons for the inferior performance of many of the current buildings and their related energy systems are diverse and for a major part caused by insufficient attention to the influence of occupant behaviour. In Smart buildings it is necessary to implement new opportunities to integrate human behaviour in the Heating Ventilation and Air-Conditiong process control loop. To realize this strategy we developed an advanced control setup, based on the combination of ubiquitous low cost wireless sensors. The article describes the proof of the principle to take the perceived thermal comfort as leading principles in the comfort/energy process control. The experiments described illustrate the feasibility of the approach

The human as key element in the assessment and monitoring of the environmental performance of buildings

To further reduce the environmental load future buildings must be much more sustainable than the existing buildings. Currently most decisions about the building sustainability are made by applying sustainability assessment tools. However these tools are not really suited for monitoring the environmental performance of buildings during its whole life cycle. New methods and approaches are necessary to asses and monitor the environmental performance of buildings. Optimizing comfort for occupants and its related energy use is becoming more important for facility managers. Presently however HVAC installations often do not operate effectively and efficiently in practice, because the behaviour of occupants is not included. This result in comfort complains as well as unnecessary high energy consumption. As the end-user influence becomes even more important for the resulting energy consumption of sustainable buildings, the focus should be how to integrate the occupants in the building’s performance control loop. This leads to new approaches which enable the inclusion of occupant’s behaviour in the process control of the building’s performance to help facilities managers operate and maintain their sustainable buildings more efficiently. In an experiment in a real in-use office building a wireless sensor network was applied to describe user behaviour. The results showed that it is possible to capture individual user behaviour and to use this to further optimize comfort in relation to energy consumption. Based on our experiments we could determine the influence of occupants’ behaviour on energy use and determine possible energy reduction by implementing the human-in-the-loop process control strategy

Smart energy facade for building comfort to optimize interaction with the smart grid

An Intelligent Electrical Energy supply Grid, a Smart Grid, is being developed to cope with fluctuations in energy generation from the different renewable energy sources. Energy demand and energy need to be better balanced to achieve improved overall efficiency. The process control of the energy flows in the buildings in relation to the outside environment and the user behavior also needs to become smart, intelligent and capable of adaptation to changing conditions. Otherwise you get the combination of a smart infrastructure but a dumb client, which is not good for the business of the client. Especially is it of great importance to take in account the goal of the energy use: human comfort. There is need for dynamic individual local comfort control instead of only process control at room level. Especially with these new process control possibilities, the interaction becomes essential of the outdoor active and passive energy processes with indoor through the façade. The façade is as such passive and active energy source on the one hand and a critical factor in relation to the perceived thermal comfort. The façade can be seen as an energy interface that should be optimized to perceived comfort of the occupants and their energy consumption