Evaluating Projects in a Dynamic Economy: Some New Envelope Results

This paper is concerned with the modern theory of social cost-benefit analysis in a dynamic economy. The theory emphasizes the role of a comprehensive, forward-looking, dynamic welfare index within the period of the project rather than that of a project's long-term consequences. However, what constitutes such a welfare index remains controversial in the recent literature. In this paper, we attempt to shed light on the issue by deriving three equivalent cost-benefit rules for evaluating a small project. In particular, we show that the direct change in net national product (NNP) qualifies as a convenient welfare index without involving any other induced side effects. The project evaluation criterion thus becomes the present discounted value of the direct changes in NNP over the project period. We also illustrate the application of this theory in a few stylized examples.

PANA V : Evaluation of a Literacy Project

PANA V Evaluation of a Literacy ProjectSUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONSThis evaluation set out to explore the impact of the literacy work carried out through PANA V. It focussed on clarifying effects such as empowerment and poverty reduction in relation to the civil society. Two specific objectives were to evaluate the methodological approach and the didactic materials and to evaluate the sustainability of the project.Although the focus of the evaluation has been PANA V, the project has been evaluated in its context, as one in a series of five projects located in Rwanda ten years after the war and genocide. The conclusion will consider future plans in this field.The evaluator has striven to create a holistic picture of the effects of the project, although the given time for the evaluation was short. Only three weeks were spent in the field study and only ten days in the actual field. Although there were some organisational and logistic problems, as is common when carrying out a study like this in a poor country, many literacy sites were visited and quite many participators were interviewed. The overall impression from the study is overwhelmingly positive. So many people commit themselves in this task of teaching Rwandans reading, writing and numeracy. Despite harsh conditions learners strive to learn and group leaders devote themselves to the task. Many leaders on different levels try their very best to manage their difficult and demanding task. The main objective was to explore the impact of the project on poverty reduction, particularly on empowerment and strategies for everyday life. Women were to be regarded particularly. From the results it is clear that the project has a strong, positive impact both on poverty reduction and empowerment of marginalised groups. Among those who have benefited from the alphabetisation are mainly women. Unfortunately, when it comes to leaders in PANA, who may also be said to have benefited from the project, only a small minority is women. This is something that is recommended that it be reconsidered inside the organisation. As a majority of the targeted learners are women, and as the economic and social situation of women in Rwanda is generally weak, this is a question that I recommend the Pentesostal church and ADEPR to look particularly into. With many women being single breadwinners of their households, it is important that also women get access to positions that may bring benefits of different kind.It is also clear that the project has positive effects for the civil society. In the present situation in Rwanda, during the process of reconciliation and rapid progress, basic education for the poor majority is a democratic issue. In a country with a plethora of internet-cafés in the capital and a small minority that use cars and mobile-telephones to communicate nation-wide, it is of outmost importance that the majority acquires basic education, of which literacy is a central part. To strengthen the civil society in Rwanda literacy is important. One central issue is then that Rwanda develops toward becoming a country where literacy is used for the benefit of the citizens and it is a democratic issue that all citizens get an opportunity to participate. Crucial for this is that strong efforts are put into primary schools nation-wide. Literacy projects for adults, like PANA, may only complement these efforts, but they constitute important and necessary complements. Other relevant ways to promote literacy are campaigns in Radio and TV and through cultural events such as festivals, music and theatre. News papers, magazines and books are natural parts of such campaigns as well as adult education. As stated under the results not much can be said about the didactics in this evaluation. On the whole the methodology and the materials fill their function well and receive a high reputation. As people learn to read and write under very simple conditions, obviously the approach is appropriate. A few suggestions may be given from the study:•Focus groups leaders’ attention on clearness, that they show very clearly what is to be read. Good structuring is probably of great importance for many learners.•Make clear what is tested in the tests and consider the possibility to use a holistic test that would be more congruent with the methodology. The possibility to use only one grade, pass, would enable a more practical test, such as reading a short, relevant text, writing something relevant and solving practical mathematic problems. Avoid tests that demand school knowledge.•Avoid using methaphors such as “fight against illiteracy” and connections between illiteracy/literacy and darkness/light. It is not true that illiteracy causes bad things and that literacy only brings good. •Be prepared that it may be more difficult in the future to achieve the goals as it may be the case that the early learners where the ones who achieved easily. The goal of “literacy in six month” in PANA will probably hold only for some learners but also those who do not manage in six months need literacy skills.A third objective was to secure sustainability. As for sustainability of the project in itself, and of the literacy process, the main conclusion is that there is a good potential. The commitment and devotedness among many involved in PANA proves good. One weakness is individual leaders in ADEPR who do not see this as an important task for the Pentecostal church in Rwanda. Other weaknesses are the unwillingness to mention explicitly the wish, for example among group leaders, to get some kind of incentive and the fear of loosing believers by cooperation with other organisations. A higher degree of transparency in this issue would probably solve some irritations and tensions.As for the sustainability of the literacy skills much may be done to improve. The acquired skills seem to be comparably relevant. The level achieved, and the level tested, may be defined as basic literacy skills, consisting of basic reading, writing and numeracy skills. However, these skills are very restricted and there is a high risk that the skills will decline, which means that there is a high risk that people will forget how to read and write because of lack of exercising. From these conclusions a few suggestions for future development will be given.

Load balancing solution and evaluation of F5 content switch equipment

The Thesis focused on hardware based Load balancing solution of web traffic through a load balancer F5 content switch. In this project, the implemented scenario for distributing HTTPtraffic load is based on different CPU usages (processing speed) of multiple member servers.Two widely used load balancing algorithms Round Robin (RR) and Ratio model (weighted Round Robin) are implemented through F5 load balancer. For evaluating the performance of F5 content switch, some experimental tests has been taken on implemented scenarios using RR and Ratio model load balancing algorithms. The performance is examined in terms of throughput (bits/sec) and Response time of member servers in a load balancing pool. From these experiments we have observed that Ratio Model load balancing algorithm is most suitable in the environment of load balancing servers with different CPU usages as it allows assigning the weight according to CPU usage both in static and dynamic load balancing of servers.

Analysis and Evaluation of EndpointSecurity Solutions

The main objective for this degree project was to analyze the Endpoint Security Solutions developed by Cisco, Microsoft and a third minor company solution represented by InfoExpress. The different solutions proposed are Cisco Network Admission Control, Microsoft Network Access Protection and InfoExpress CyberGatekeeper. An explanation of each solution functioning is proposed as well as an analysis of the differences between those solutions. This thesis work also proposes a tutorial for the installation of Cisco Network Admission Control for an easier implementation. The research was done by reading articles on the internet and by experimenting the Cisco Network Admission Control solution. My background knowledge about Cisco routing and ACL was also used. Based on the actual analysis done in this thesis, a conclusion was drawn that all existing solutions are not yet ready for large-scale use in corporate networks. Moreover all solutions are proprietary and incompatible. The future possible standard for Endpoint solution might be driven by Cisco and Microsoft and a rude competition begins between those two giants.

Evaluation of surface treatment techniques for polypropylene andimplementation of a method for testing ink adhesion

If a plastic material is used as a print bearer there are a need of a special surface treatment to get agod and durable printing. The most used surface treatment technique for the moment is coronatreatment. This kind of treatment has unfortunately showed not to be so durable in the long term.Plasma treatment which in this case uses different kind of gases in the treatment of polypropyleneis shown as a more effective treatment in this project. When the plasma treated surface has beenprinted is the good quality last much longer and the adhesion between the ink and the surface isremained. To test this adhesion is for the moment a standard used (ASTM D3359). This standardhas appeared unstable and dependent at many different factors, which gives a big variation in thetest results. Because of this has new test methods been carried out to give a more even and morereliable result in the test of the adhesion.

Design/Evaluation of A Methodology For Performance Optimization Of Indexable Carbide Inserts

In this project, two broad facets in the design of a methodology for performance optimization of indexable carbide inserts were examined. They were physical destructive testing and software simulation.For the physical testing, statistical research techniques were used for the design of the methodology. A five step method which began with Problem definition, through System identification, Statistical model formation, Data collection and Statistical analyses and results was indepthly elaborated upon. Set-up and execution of an experiment with a compression machine together with roadblocks and possible solution to curb road blocks to quality data collection were examined. 2k factorial design was illustrated and recommended for process improvement. Instances of first-order and second-order response surface analyses were encountered. In the case of curvature, test for curvature significance with center point analysis was recommended. Process optimization with method of steepest ascent and central composite design or process robustness studies of response surface analyses were also recommended.For the simulation test, AdvantEdge program was identified as the most used software for tool development. Challenges to the efficient application of this software were identified and possible solutions proposed. In conclusion, software simulation and physical testing were recommended to meet the objective of the project.

LASER-TESTING RIG : Measurement System for evaluation of Shape of concentrating reflector for solar collector Absolicon X10

This Thesis project is a part of the all-round automation of production of concentrating solar PV/T systems Absolicon X10. ABSOLICON Solar Concentrator AB has been invented and started production of the prospective solar concentrated system Absolicon X10. The aims of this Thesis project are designing, assembling, calibrating and putting in operation the automatic measurement system intended to evaluate the shape of concentrating parabolic reflectors.On the basis of the requirements of the company administration and needs of real production process the operation conditions for the Laser testing rig were formulated. The basic concept to use laser radiation was defined.At the first step, the complex design of the whole system was made and division on the parts was defined. After the preliminary conducted simulations the function and operation conditions of the all parts were formulated.At the next steps, the detailed design of all the parts was conducted. Most components were ordered from respective companies. Some of the mechanical components were made in the workshop of the company. All parts of the Laser-testing rig were assembled and tested. Software part, which controls the Laser-testing rig work, was created on the LabVIEW basis. To tune and test software part the special simulator was designed and assembled.When all parts were assembled in the complete system, the Laser-testing rig was tested, calibrated and tuned.In the workshop of Absolicon AB, the trial measurements were conducted and Laser-testing rig was installed in the production line at the plant in Soleftea.

Universal Experimental Measurement System «Sun-Walker» : Automotive measurement system for the evaluation of the solar irradiation distribution for the tests of the solar concentrated systems.

This Thesis project is a part of the research conducted in Solar industry. ABSOLICON Solar Concentrator AB has invented and started production of the prospective solar concentrated system Absolicon X10. The aims of this Thesis project are designing, assembling, calibrating and putting in operation the automatic measurement system intended to evaluate distribution of density of solar radiation in the focal line of the concentrated parabolic reflectors and to measure radiation from the artificial source of light being a calibration-testing tool.On the basis of the requirements of the company’s administration and needs of designing the concentrated reflectors the operation conditions for the Sun-Walker were formulated. As the first step, the complex design of the whole system was made and division on the parts was specified. After the preliminary conducted simulation of the functions and operation conditions of the all parts were formulated.As the next steps, the detailed design of all the parts was made. Most components were ordered from respective companies. Some of the mechanical components were made in the workshop of the company. All parts of the Sun-Walker were assembled and tested. The software part, which controls the Sun-Walker work and conducts measurements of solar irradiation, was created on the LabVIEW basis. To tune and test the software part, the special simulator was designed and assembled.When all parts were assembled in the complete system, the Sun-Walker was tested, calibrated and tuned.

TCA Evaluation : Lab Measurements, Modelling and System Simulations

The study reported here is part of a large project for evaluation of the Thermo-Chemical Accumulator (TCA), a technology under development by the Swedish company ClimateWell AB. The studies concentrate on the use of the technology for comfort cooling. This report concentrates on measurements in the laboratory, modelling and system simulation. The TCA is a three-phase absorption heat pump that stores energy in the form of crystallised salt, in this case Lithium Chloride (LiCl) with water being the other substance. The process requires vacuum conditions as with standard absorption chillers using LiBr/water. Measurements were carried out in the laboratories at the Solar Energy Research Center SERC, at Högskolan Dalarna as well as at ClimateWell AB. The measurements at SERC were performed on a prototype version 7:1 and showed that this prototype had several problems resulting in poor and unreliable performance. The main results were that: there was significant corrosion leading to non-condensable gases that in turn caused very poor performance; unwanted crystallisation caused blockages as well as inconsistent behaviour; poor wetting of the heat exchangers resulted in relatively high temperature drops there. A measured thermal COP for cooling of 0.46 was found, which is significantly lower than the theoretical value. These findings resulted in a thorough redesign for the new prototype, called ClimateWell 10 (CW10), which was tested briefly by the authors at ClimateWell. The data collected here was not large, but enough to show that the machine worked consistently with no noticeable vacuum problems. It was also sufficient for identifying the main parameters in a simulation model developed for the TRNSYS simulation environment, but not enough to verify the model properly. This model was shown to be able to simulate the dynamic as well as static performance of the CW10, and was then used in a series of system simulations. A single system model was developed as the basis of the system simulations, consisting of a CW10 machine, 30 m2 flat plate solar collectors with backup boiler and an office with a design cooling load in Stockholm of 50 W/m2, resulting in a 7.5 kW design load for the 150 m2 floor area. Two base cases were defined based on this: one for Stockholm using a dry cooler with design cooling rate of 30 kW; one for Madrid with a cooling tower with design cooling rate of 34 kW. A number of parametric studies were performed based on these two base cases. These showed that the temperature lift is a limiting factor for cooling for higher ambient temperatures and for charging with fixed temperature source such as district heating. The simulated evacuated tube collector performs only marginally better than a good flat plate collector if considering the gross area, the margin being greater for larger solar fractions. For 30 m2 collector a solar faction of 49% and 67% were achieved for the Stockholm and Madrid base cases respectively. The average annual efficiency of the collector in Stockholm (12%) was much lower than that in Madrid (19%). The thermal COP was simulated to be approximately 0.70, but has not been possible to verify with measured data. The annual electrical COP was shown to be very dependent on the cooling load as a large proportion of electrical use is for components that are permanently on. For the cooling loads studied, the annual electrical COP ranged from 2.2 for a 2000 kWh cooling load to 18.0 for a 21000 kWh cooling load. There is however a potential to reduce the electricity consumption in the machine, which would improve these figures significantly. It was shown that a cooling tower is necessary for the Madrid climate, whereas a dry cooler is sufficient for Stockholm although a cooling tower does improve performance. The simulation study was very shallow and has shown a number of areas that are important to study in more depth. One such area is advanced control strategy, which is necessary to mitigate the weakness of the technology (low temperature lift for cooling) and to optimally use its strength (storage).

Travel Report from the first field trip within the SIDA supported project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility : Including visits to Ihushi Development Center, Tweyambe Secondary School and Mavuno Project in Tanzania. Conducted in April 2011

This report describes the outcome of the first visit to Tanzania, within the project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility". The trip included visits to three different organizations; Ihushi Development Center (IDC) near Mwanza, TIDESO near Bukoba, and Mavuno Project in Karagwe. At IDC, a brief evaluation of the current power system was done and measuring equipment for long term measurements were installed. At all three locations investigations regarding the current and future electricity demand were conducted and connections to people relevant to the study were established. The report is including as well some technical specifications as some observations regarding organization and management of the technical systems. The trip was including only short visits and therefore only brief introductions to the different organizations, based on observations done by the author. The report is hence describing the author’s understanding of the technical system and social structures after only short visits to each of the organizations, and may differ from observations done at another point in time, over a different time period, or by some other person.This report describes the outcome of the first visit to Tanzania, within the project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility". The trip included visits to three different organizations; Ihushi Development Center (IDC) near Mwanza, TIDESO near Bukoba, and Mavuno Project in Karagwe. At IDC, a brief evaluation of the current power system was done and measuring equipment for long term measurements were installed. At all three locations investigations regarding the current and future electricity demand were conducted and connections to people relevant to the study were established. The report is including as well some technical specifications as some observations regarding organization and management of the technical systems. The trip was including only short visits and therefore only brief introductions to the different organizations, based on observations done by the author. The report is hence describing the author’s understanding of the technical system and social structures after only short visits to each of the organizations, and may differ from observations done at another point in time, over a different time period, or by some other person.

Evaluation of a high temperature solar thermal seasonal borehole storage

A solar thermal system with seasonal borehole storage for heating of a residential area in Anneberg, Sweden, approximately 10 km north of Stockholm, has been in operation since late 2002. Originally, the project was part of the EU THERMIE project “Large-scale Solar Heating Systems for Housing Developments” (REB/0061/97) and was the first solar heating plant in Europe with borehole storage in rock not utilizing a heat pump. Earlier evaluations of the system show lower performance than the preliminary simulation study, with residents complaining of a high use of electricity for domestic hot water (DHW) preparation and auxiliary heating. One explanation mentioned in the earlier evaluations is that the borehole storage had not yet reached “steady state” temperatures at the time of evaluation. Many years have passed since then and this paper presents results from a new evaluation. The main aim of this work is to evaluate the current performance of the system based on several key figures, as well as on system function based on available measurement data. The analysis show that though the borehole storage now has reached a quasi-steady state and operates as intended, the auxiliary electricity consumption is much higher than the original design values largely due to high losses in the distribution network, higher heat loads as well as lower solar gains.

NGL Project: Sub-project “Flipped Classroom” : Course “Organization Theory” (FÖ1039)

This paper is the final report from the NGL project implementing the flipped classroom approach into the undergraduate course "Organization Theory". The report describes the implementation and evaluates the outcomes of flipped classroom teaching/learning using the students' survey and statistics from YouTube analytics and the learning management platform Fronter.

Evaluation of a versatile energy auditing tool

Energy auditing can be an important contribution for identification and assessment of energy conservation measures (ECMs) in buildings. Numerous tools and software have been developed, with varying degree of precision and complexity and different areas of use.   This paper evaluates PHPP as a versatile, easy-to-use energy auditing tool and gives examples of how it has been compared to a dynamic simulation tool, within the EU-project iNSPiRe. PHPP is a monthly balance energy calculation tool based on EN13790. It is intended for assisting the design of Passive Houses and energy renovation projects and as guidance in the choice of appropriate ECMs.   PHPP was compared against the transient simulation software TRNSYS for a single family house and a multi-family house. It should be mentioned that dynamic building simulations might strongly depend on the model assumptions and simplifications compared to reality, such as ideal heating or real heat emission system. Setting common boundary conditions for both PHPP and TRNSYS, the ideal heating and cooling loads and demands were compared on monthly and annual basis for seven European locations and buildings with different floor area, S/V ratio, U-values and glazed area of the external walls.   The results show that PHPP can be used to assess the heating demand of single-zone buildings and the reduction of heating demand with ECMs with good precision. The estimation of cooling demand is also acceptable if an appropriate shading factor is applied in PHPP. In general, PHPP intentionally overestimates heating and cooling loads, to be on the safe side for system sizing. Overall, the agreement with TRNSYS is better in cases with higher quality of the envelope as in cold climates and for good energy standards. As an energy auditing tool intended for pre-design it is a good, versatile and easy-to-use alternative to more complex simulation tools.