Combined Heat and Power Resource Guide, December 2015

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) refers to the onsite production of electricity and thermal energy from the same fuel source. Integrating power and thermal energy production is more efficient than separate generating systems and used in the right situation can yield several benefits.

Resilient housing : a new resource-oriented approach

The institutional regimes framework has previously been applied to the institutional conditions that support or hinder the sustainability of housing stocks. This resource-based approach identifies the actors across different sectors that have an interest in housing, how they use housing, the mechanisms affecting their use (public policy, use rights, contracts, etc.) and the effects of their uses on the sustainability of housing within the context of the built environment. The potential of the institutional regimes framework is explored for its suitability to the many considerations of housing resilience. By identifying all the goods and services offered by the resource 'housing stock', researchers and decision-makers could improve the resilience of housing by better accounting for the ecosystem services used by housing, decreasing the vulnerability of housing to disturbances, and maximizing recovery and reorganization following a disturbance. The institutional regimes framework is found to be a promising tool for addressing housing resilience. Further questions are raised for translating this conceptual framework into a practical application underpinned with empirical data.

Aging and Disability Resource Center and MHDS Commission Home Modification Assistance Program Plan, December 2015

This report was prepared as a directive to Aging and Disability Resource Centers and The Mental Health and Disability Commission to jointly develop a plan for a home modification assistance program to provide grants and individual income tax credits to assist with expenses related to the making or permanent home modifications that permit individual with a disability to remain in the homes.

Water resource availability : executive summary, 1978

The information presented in this summary document has been based on the comprehensive, "Task Force Report on Water Resource Availability", prepared by the Iowa Geological Survey and filed with the Iowa Natural Resources Council. The reader should refer to the task force document for more detailed information.

Iowa Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety Resource Plan, 2011

The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) convened the Health and Long-Term Care Advisory Council (HLTCAC) to assist in the development of its strategic plan. One component of the strategic plan is a rural health care resource plan. The intent of this document is to present reliable information and data as a valuable resource for the officials, agencies, and organizations responsible for strengthening and supporting the rural health systems vital to 43 percent of Iowa residents.

Generating a raster map presentation of a forest resource by solving a transportation problem

Abstract

Prepupal Building Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster and Its Evolution under Resource and Time Constraints.

Structures built by animals are a widespread and ecologically important 'extended phenotype'. While its taxonomic diversity has been well described, factors affecting short-term evolution of building behavior within a species have received little experimental attention. Here we describe how, given the opportunity, wandering Drosophila melanogaster larvae often build long tunnels in agar substrates and embed their pupae within them. These embedded larvae are characterized by a longer egg-to-pupariation developmental time than larvae that pupate on the surface. Assuming that such building behaviors are likely to be energetically costly and/or time consuming, we hypothesized that they should evolve to be less pronounced under resource or time limitation. In accord with this prediction, larvae from populations evolved for 160 generations under a regime that combines larval malnutrition with limited developmental time dug shorter tunnels than larvae from control unselected populations. However, the proportion of larvae that embedded before pupation did not differ between the malnutrition-adapted and control populations, suggesting that tunnel length and likelihood of embedding before pupation are controlled by different genetic loci. The behaviors exhibited by wandering larvae of Drosophila melanogaster prior to pupation offer a model system to study evolution of animal building behaviors because the tunneling and embedding phenotypes are simple, facultative and highly variable.

Treatment patterns and health care resource utilization in a 1-year observational cohort study of outpatients with schizophrenia at risk of nonadherence treated with long-acting injectable antipsychotics

Purpose: To describe (1) the clinical profiles and the patterns of use of long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia at risk of nonadherence with oral antipsychotics, and in those who started treatment with LAI antipsychotics, (2) health care resource utilization and associated costs. Patients and methods: A total of 597 outpatients with schizophrenia at risk of nonadherence, according to the psychiatrist's clinical judgment, were recruited at 59 centers in a noninterventional prospective observational study of 1-year follow-up when their treatment was modified. In a post hoc analysis, the profiles of patients starting LAI or continuing with oral antipsychotics were described, and descriptive analyses of treatments, health resource utilization, and direct costs were performed in those who started an LAI antipsychotic. Results: Therapy modifications involved the antipsychotic medications in 84.8% of patients, mostly because of insufficient efficacy of prior regimen. Ninety-two (15.4%) patients started an LAI antipsychotic at recruitment. Of these, only 13 (14.1%) were prescribed with first-generation antipsychotics. During 1 year, 16.3% of patients who started and 14.9% of patients who did not start an LAI antipsychotic at recruitment relapsed, contrasting with the 20.9% who had been hospitalized only within the prior 6 months. After 1 year, 74.3% of patients who started an LAI antipsychotic continued concomitant treatment with oral antipsychotics. The mean (median) total direct health care cost per patient per month during the study year among the patients starting any LAI antipsychotic at baseline was 1,407 ( 897.7). Medication costs (including oral and LAI antipsychotics and concomitant medication) represented almost 44%, whereas nonmedication costs accounted for more than 55% of the mean total direct health care costs. Conclusion: LAI antipsychotics were infrequently prescribed in spite of a psychiatrist-perceived risk of nonadherence to oral antipsychotics. Mean medication costs were lower than nonmedication costs.

Resource-based approach to new product development at the intersection of industries. Two case studies in telecommunications

Työn tavoitteena on selvittää mitkä ovat tärkeimmät aineettomat resurssit, joita tarvitaan teollisuuksien risteyskohdassa tapahtuvassa tuotekehityksessä. Teollisuuksien risteyskohdissa syntyvät tuotteet ovat usein radikaaleja, mikä tekee tuotteista mielenkiintoisia, paljon liiketoimintapotentiaalia tarjoavia. Tämä tutkimus lähestyy tuotekehitystä resurssipohjaisesta näkökulmasta. Myös tietämyspohjaista ja suhdepohjaista näkemystä hyödynnetään korostamaan keskittymistä aineettomiin resursseihin. Tutkimuksessa rakennetaan viitekehys, jossa tutkitaan eri resurssikategorioita. Valitut kategoriat ovat teknologiset, markkinointi-, johtamiseen ja hallinnointiin liittyvät ja suhdepohjaiset resurssit. Empiirisessä osassa tutkitaan kahta uutta tuotekonseptia, jotka ovat syntyneet teollisuuksien risteyskohdissa. Empiirisen osan tavoitteena on määritellä tutkimuksen kohteena olevia alustavia tuotekonsepteja tarkemmin ja selvittää millaisia resursseja näiden toteuttamiseen tarvitaan. Myös tarvittavien resurssien nykytila selvitetään ja pohditaan tulisiko puuttuvia resursseja kehittää yrityksen sisällä vai hankkia ne ulkopuolelta. Tutkimus toteutettiin asiantuntijahaastatteluin. Kahden tapaustutkimuksen perusteella näyttäisi siltä, että suhdepohjaiset resurssit ovat erittäin tärkeitä teollisuuksien risteyskohdissa tapahtuvassa tuotekehityksessä. Myös teknologiset resurssit ovat tärkeitä. Markkinointiresurssien tärkeys riippuu lopullisesta tuotekonseptista, kun taas johtamiseen ja kehittämiseen liittyvät resurssit ovat tärkeitänäiden konseptien luomisessa.

Trophic resource partitioning and competition between the two sibling bat species Myotis myotis and Myotis blythii

1. Niche theory predicts that the stable coexistence of species within a guild should be associated, if resources are limited, with a mechanism of resource partitioning. Using extensive data on diets, the present study attempts: (i) to test the hypothesis that, in sympatry, the interspecific overlap between the trophic niches of the sibling bat species Myotis myotis and M. blythii-which coexist intimately in their roosts-is effectively lower than the two intraspecific overlaps; (ii) to assess the role played by interspecific competition in resource partitioning through the study of trophic niche displacement between several sympatric and allopatric populations. 2. Diets were determined by the analysis of faecal samples collected in the field from individual bats captured in various geographical areas. Trophic niche overlaps were calculated monthly for all possible intraspecific and interspecific pairs of individuals from sympatric populations. Niche breadth was estimated from: (i) every faecal sample; (ii) all the faecal samples collected per month in a given population (geographical area). 3. In every population, the bulk of the diets of M. myotis and M. blythii consisted of, respectively, terrestrial (e.g. carabid beetles) and grass-dwelling (mostly bush crickets) prey. All intraspecific trophic niche overlaps were significantly greater than the interspecific one, except in Switzerland in May when both species exploited mass concentrations of cockchafers, a non-limiting food source. This clearcut partitioning of resources may allow the stable, intimate coexistence observed under sympatric conditions. 4. Relative proportions of ground-and grass-dwelling prey, as well as niche breadths (either individual or population), did not differ significantly between sympatry and allopatry, showing that, under allopatric conditions, niche expansion does not take place. This suggests that active interspecific competition is not the underlying mechanism responsible for the niche partitioning which is currently observed between M. myotis and M. blythii.

UniPathway: a resource for the exploration and annotation of metabolic pathways.

UniPathway (http://www.unipathway.org) is a fully manually curated resource for the representation and annotation of metabolic pathways. UniPathway provides explicit representations of enzyme-catalyzed and spontaneous chemical reactions, as well as a hierarchical representation of metabolic pathways. This hierarchy uses linear subpathways as the basic building block for the assembly of larger and more complex pathways, including species-specific pathway variants. All of the pathway data in UniPathway has been extensively cross-linked to existing pathway resources such as KEGG and MetaCyc, as well as sequence resources such as the UniProt KnowledgeBase (UniProtKB), for which UniPathway provides a controlled vocabulary for pathway annotation. We introduce here the basic concepts underlying the UniPathway resource, with the aim of allowing users to fully exploit the information provided by UniPathway.

The Boundaries of a Firm in the Pulp and Paper Industry: Complementarities of the Resource-Based View and Transaction Cost Economics

Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on tutkia sellu- ja paperiteollisuuden toimintojen luonnetta sekä miten yrityksen rajapinnat ovat muodostuneet ko. teollisuudenalalla. Tutkimus on eksploratiivinen ja luonteeltaan kvalitatiivinen. Tutkimuksen aineisto kerättiin yrityksissä tehdyillä teemahaastatteluilla. Sellu- ja paperitehtaan toimintojen analysoinnissa käytetään resurssiperusteista näkemystä ja transaktiokustannusteoriaa. Tutkimuksen yritysten rakennetta voidaan pitää varsin konservatiivisena. Teoreettinen kehys pystyi selittämään varsinaisen tuotannon järjestämistä varsin hyvin. Tukitoiminnoissa löytyi ristiriitoja teorian ja todellisuuden välillä. Tuotantotoiminnot kannattaa pitää yrityksen sisällä, koska ne täyttävät VRIN-attribuutit ja niihin liittyy korkeita transaktiokustannuksia. Suurin osa tukitoiminnoista voidaan luokitella triviaaleiksi. Joitain tukitoimintoja voidaan kuitenkin luokitella strategisesti tärkeiksi, ja voidaan päätellä, että ne pitäisi pitää yrityksen sisällä. Tässä suhteessa tulokset olivat kuitenkin ristiriitaisia, ja lisätutkimuksia tarvittaisiin lopullisten johtopäätösten tekemiseen.

The Reflections of Strategic Orientation on profitability - A resource-based study in pulp and paper industry

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli analysoida erilaisia strategisia orientaatioita sellu- ja paperiteollisuudessa. Sellu- ja paperiteollisuus on kohtaamassa strategisia haasteita, jotka ulottuvat syvälle sen rakenteisiin. Yritykset ovat valinneet erilaisia lähestymistapoja organisoidessaan tuotantoa ja kansainvälistä arvoketjuaan tässä muuttuvassa ympäristössä. Tutkimukseen valittiin 30 suurinta sellu- ja paperiteollisuudessa toimivaa yritystä ja mahdollisia syitä kannattavuuseroihin yritysten välillä analysoitiin. Yritysten strategista orientaatiota tarkasteltiin vertailemalla muun muassa seuraavia tekijöitä: vertikaalinen integraatioaste, tuotevalikoiman laajuus, tuotantokapasiteetin levinneisyys ja tuotantokapasiteetin ikä. Kannattavuutta mitattiin erilaisilla talouden tunnusluvuilla (liikevoitto, oman pääoman tuotto-%, koko pääoman tuotto-%). Tulosten mukaan yrityksiä voidaan ryhmitellä strategisen orientaation perusteella ja ryhmien välillä on kannattavuuseroja.

From the Resource-Base to Firm Boundaries in the Electricity Network Business - Case Lappeenrannan Energia Oy

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli selvittääcase -yrityksen resurssi- ja kyvykkyyspohjaa resurssiperustaisen näkemyksen mukaan, sekä yrityksen rajoja transaktiokustannusteorian mukaan. Tutkimusongelmia lähestyttiin kirjallisuuskatsauksella, puoli-strukturoiduilla teemahaastatteluilla, sekä kyselylomakkeilla. Tutkielman päätuloksiksi voidaan Tukea löydetty resurssikuilu, resurssien ja kyvykkyyksien tutkinta, sekä kyselylomakkeiden rakentaminen ja käyttö. Tutkielman paljastamasta kuilusta voidaan erottaa kolme päähaastetta; ikääntyvät sähköverkot, ikääntyvä henkilökunta ja liiketoimintaosaamisen puute. Lisäksi resurssien ja kyvykkyyksien tutkinta nosti esille organisaation rutiineja ja prosesseja, ja kyselylomakkeet osoittautuivat varsin toimiviksi tutkimuksen kontekstissa. Yhteenvetona voidaan todeta, että sähköverkkoliiketoiminta ja case yritys ovat suuren rakennemuutoksen alla, joka tuo mukanaan suuria haasteita myös lähitulevaisuudessa.