Savukaasujen mittausjärjestelmän kehittäminen jätteen rinnakkaispolttolaitoksessa

Virtain kaupungissa sijaitseva vuodesta –79 toiminut lämpövoimala on pääasiassa kotimaisia polttoaineita käyttävä kaukolämpöä tuottava voimalaitos. Jätemurskeen (REF) osuus on tällä hetkellä noin 10 % laitoksen lämmöntuotosta. REF valmistetaan paikallisesti ja sen tuotantoa on tarkoitus lisätä lähivuosina voimakkaasti. EU:n uusi todennäköisesti loppuvuodesta-2000 hyväksyttävä jätteenpolttoa koskeva direktiivi asettaa jätteen rinnakkaispolttolaitoksille tiukat päästörajat ja mittausvelvoitteet. Tämä lisää tuntuvasti kustannuksia Virtain laitoksen kaltaisissa pienissä kierrätyspolttoainetta hyödyntävissä laitoksissa. Työssä selvitettiin jätteenpolttodirektiivistä aiheutuvat savukaasujen mittaamisen kokonaiskustannukset Virroilla. Taloudellisimman mittausjärjestelmän vuo-tuisiksi kokonaiskustannuksiksi saatiin 180 000 mk jakautuen seuraavasti: Jatkuvatoimiset mittauslaitteet käyttökuluineen 90 000 mk, jaksottaiset HF, HCl ja SO2 -mittaukset 20 000 mk, raskasmetallien, dioksiinien ja furaanien määräaikainen mittaaminen 40 000 mk ja vertailumittaukset 30 000 mk.

Impact on costs of a case management intervention for emergency department frequent users

Background: In most of the emergency departments (ED) in developed countries, a subset of patients visits the ED frequently. Despite their small numbers, these patients are the source of a disproportionally high number of all ED visits, and use a significant proportion of healthcare resources. They place a heavy economic burden on hospital and healthcare system budgets overall. In order to improve the management of these patients, the University hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland implemented a case management intervention (CM) between May 2012 and July 2013. In this randomized controlled trial, 250 frequent ED users (visits>5 during previous 12 months) were allocated to either the CM group or the standard ED care (SC) group and followed up for 12 months. The first result of the CM was to reduce significantly the ED visits. The present study examined whether the CM intervention also reduced the costs generated by the ED frequent users not only from the hospital perspective, but also from the healthcare system perspective. Methods: Cost data were obtained from the hospital's analytical accounting system and from health insurances. Multivariate linear models including a fixed effect "group" and socio-demographic characteristics and health-related variables were run.

Java Mobile Media API porting in Symbian Operating System

Työssä tutkitaan, kuinka Symbian käyttöjärjestelmälle voidaan tehdä siirrettäviä ohjelmia. Työssä käydään läpi menetelmiä, jotka helpottavat ohjelmistojen siirrettävyyttä uudelle alustalle. Uuteen älypuhelimeen voi tulla monia uusia komponentteja. Laite voi muuttua piiritasolla, käyttöjärjestelmästä voi tulla uusi versio sekä siirrettävästä ohjelmasta voi tulla uusi versio. Kaikki nämä vaikuttavat ohjelman siirrettävyyteen. Työssä tehtiin Java-rajapinnan siirto uudelle alustalle. Prosessin aikana löydettiin tärkeitä tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat ohjelmiston siirrettävyyteen. Siirrettävyys sinänsä pitäisi ottaa huomioon ohjelmistoprosessin jokaisessa vaiheessa. Älypuhelimista tulee jatkuvasti uusia versioita. Tämä tekee ohjelmien siirrettävyydestä hyvin tärkeän tekijän ohjelmistojen suunnittelussa. Hyvin suunniteltu ohjelma on helpompi ylläpitää, päivättää ja siirtää myöhemmin.

Yrityksen asema Suomen rakennuskonevuokrausmarkkinoilla

Rakennuskoneiden osuus rakentamisen kokonaiskustannuksista on 3 – 6 % rakennushankkeen tyypistä riippuen. Perinteisesti vuokrakoneita valittaessa hinta on ollut suurin valintaan vaikuttava tekijä. Uudenaikaisten rakennuskoneiden tehokkaalla käytöllä ja työnsuunnitelulla voidaan rakentamisen kokonaiskustannuksia alentaa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tehdä toimiala-analyysi Suomen ja osin ulkomaiden rakennuskonevuokrausmarkkinoista ja saadun tiedon avulla analysoida NCC Finland Oy:n mahdollisuuksia toimialalla. Tutkimuksessa markkinoiden kokoa ja yritysten menestystekijöitä näillä markkinoilla arvioitiin erilaisin menetelmin. NCC:n osalta tehtiin liiketoimintasuunnitelma kalustoliiketoiminnan kehittämiseksi. Keskeisenä tutkimustuloksena oli havainto markkinoiden kasvusta ja kilpailun kansainvälistymisestä. Toimialan menestystekijöiksi nousivat oikea tuotevalikoima, toiminnan sisäinen tehokkuus ja osaava henkilökunta sekä palveluiden oikea hinnoittelu. Toimenpide-ehdotuksena NCC:lle esitetään toimintojen yhdenmukaistamista, tuotevalikoiman uudelleenarviointia ja toimintojen yleistä tehostamista. Jatkotutkimuksen tarvetta on sopivien yhteistyökumppaneiden kartoittamisessa sekä ulkopuolisille markkinoille suuntautuvan toimintamallin rakentamisessa.

Paying the costs of reproduction.

When a female fly mates it produces a hormone that increases the size of its midgut and enhances fat metabolism in order to provide the energy needed for reproduction.

Ship Leases under IAS 17, case Fortum Shipping

International accounting standards will be applied from the1st of January 2005 in accounting of member states of the EU with a view of harmonizing the accounting practices in Europe, and on the long term even more widely. The purpose of adopting IAS accounting standards is to make the financial statements and financial information received from companies more comparable and more transparent for investors and other interest groups. IAS 17 introduces the treatment of a lease agreement in the light of the new accounting standards. Finnish companies have used finance leases widely as an alternative, off-balance sheet form of financing capital investments consistently with Finnish GAAP. Along with the appliance of IAS 17 the off-balance-sheet financing possibility of leases classified as finance leases will no longer exist. IAS 17 states that finance leases are going to be recognized in the balance sheet as both assets, in form of fixed assets, and loans in liabilities classified as long and short term loans. IAS 17 will make two major changes to the income statement. Firstly, the lease payments formerly treated as variable costs are moved below the operating profit level to finance costs. Secondly, the depreciations from the leased assets are also introduced. The effects to the case company's, Fortum Shipping's, income statement and balance sheet are remarkable. Along with the appliance of IAS Fortum Shipping's net assets are somewhat going to be doubled, the amount of liabilities increases significantly and the earnings before interests and taxes increases moderately. The preceding factors have a big effect on the case company's financial key figures. So, the IAS originated effects on balance sheet and income statement have essential impacts on a company's key financial indicators. Most significant changes can be found in key ratios measuring profitability, capital structure, and efficiency. This means that when comparing the IAS calculated profits of companies with the profits calculated prior with Finnish GAAP, the analysis should be made with prudence because the figures are not comparable on straight-forward basis.

The Impact of Doing Business Regulations on Investments in ICT

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Reuse of information for selection of methods and operating conditions for drying of pharmaceutical materials

Drying is a major step in the manufacturing process in pharmaceutical industries, and the selection of dryer and operating conditions are sometimes a bottleneck. In spite of difficulties, the bottlenecks are taken care of with utmost care due to good manufacturing practices (GMP) and industries' image in the global market. The purpose of this work is to research the use of existing knowledge for the selection of dryer and its operating conditions for drying of pharmaceutical materials with the help of methods like case-based reasoning and decision trees to reduce time and expenditure for research. The work consisted of two major parts as follows: Literature survey on the theories of spray dying, case-based reasoning and decision trees; working part includes data acquisition and testing of the models based on existing and upgraded data. Testing resulted in a combination of two models, case-based reasoning and decision trees, leading to more specific results when compared to conventional methods.

Recovery Risk and Labor Costs in Public-Private Partnerships : Contractual Choice in the US Water industry

We use an ordered logistic model to empirically examine the factors that explain varying degrees of private involvement in the U.S. water sector through public-private partnerships. Our estimates suggest that a variety of factors help explain greater private participation in this sector. We find that the risk to private participants regarding cost recovery is an important driver of private participation. The relative cost of labor is also a key factor in determining the degree of private involvement in the contract choice. When public wages are high relative to private wages, private participation is viewed as a source of cost savings. We thus find two main drivers of greater private involvement: one encouraging private participation by reducing risk, and another encouraging government to seek out private participation in lowering costs.

Privatization, cooperation and costs of solid waste services in small towns

This paper analyzes the cost implications of privatization and cooperation in the provision of solid waste services for a sample of small municipalities. In conducting this empirical analysis, a survey is first designed and administered to municipalities in the Spanish region of Aragon, and then an estimation of the determinants of service costs is undertaken, considering the possible endogeneity of delivery choices. Our findings indicate that cooperation is more effective than privatization in saving costs. Both production forms can enable small municipalities to cut costs by exploiting scale economies. However, the fact that inter-municipal cooperation involves lower transaction costs and is less likely to be affected by competition problems would seem to account for the fact that it is a more effective way of reducing costs.

Comparison of electricity generation costs

The economical competitiveness of various power plant alternatives is compared. The comparison comprises merely electricity producing power plants. Combined heat and power (CHP) producing power will cover part of the future power deficit in Finland, but also condensing power plants for base load production will be needed. The following types of power plants are studied: nuclear power plant, combined cycle gas turbine plant, coal-fired condensing power plant, peat-fired condensing power plant, wood-fired condensing power plant and wind power plant. The calculations are carried out by using the annuity method with a real interest rate of 5 % per annum and with a fixed price level as of January 2008. With the annual peak load utilization time of 8000 hours (corresponding to a load factor of 91,3 %) the production costs would be for nuclear electricity 35,0 €/MWh, for gas based electricity 59,2 €/MWh and for coal based electricity 64,4 €/MWh, when using a price of 23 €/tonCO2 for the carbon dioxide emission trading. Without emission trading the production cost of gas electricity is 51,2 €/MWh and that of coal electricity 45,7 €/MWh and nuclear remains the same (35,0 €/MWh) In order to study the impact of changes in the input data, a sensitivity analysis has been carried out. It reveals that the advantage of the nuclear power is quite clear. E.g. the nuclear electricity is rather insensitive to the changes of nuclear fuel price, whereas for natural gas alternative the rising trend of gas price causes the greatest risk. Furthermore, increase of emission trading price improves the competitiveness of the nuclear alternative. The competitiveness and payback of the nuclear power investment is studied also as such by using various electricity market prices for determining the revenues generated by the investment. The profitability of the investment is excellent, if the market price of electricity is 50 €/MWh or more.

Life cycle costs in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems with drive

Energy consumption and energy efficiency have become an issue. Energy consumption is rising all over the world and because of that, and the climate change, energy is becoming more and more expensive. Buildings are major consumers of energy, and inside the buildings the major consumers are heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. They usually run at constant speed without efficient control. In most cases HVAC equipment is also oversized. Traditionally heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems have been sized to meet conditions that rarely occur. The theory part in this thesis represents the basics of life cycle costs and calculations for the whole life cycle of a system. It also represents HVAC systems, equipment, systems controls and ways to save energy in these systems. The empirical part of this thesis represents life cycle cost calculations for HVAC systems. With these calculations it is possible to compute costs for the whole life cycle for the wanted variables. Life cycle costs make it possible to compare which variable causes most of the costs from the whole life point of view. Life cycle costs were studied through two real life cases which were focused on two different kinds of HVAC systems. In both of these cases the renovations were already made, so that the comparison between the old and the new, now existing system would be easier. The study indicates that energy can be saved in HVAC systems by using variable speed drive as a control method.

Cost-benefit analysis of an enhanced recovery protocol for pancreaticoduodenectomy.

BACKGROUND: Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programmes have been shown to decrease complications and hospital stay. The cost-effectiveness of such programmes has been demonstrated for colorectal surgery. This study aimed to assess the economic outcomes of a standard ERAS programme for pancreaticoduodenectomy. METHODS: ERAS for pancreaticoduodenectomy was implemented in October 2012. All consecutive patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy until October 2014 were recorded. This group was compared in terms of costs with a cohort of consecutive patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy between January 2010 and October 2012, before ERAS implementation. Preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative real costs were collected for each patient via the hospital administration. A bootstrap independent t test was used for comparison. ERAS-specific costs were integrated into the model. RESULTS: The groups were well matched in terms of demographic and surgical details. The overall complication rate was 68 per cent (50 of 74 patients) and 82 per cent (71 of 87 patients) in the ERAS and pre-ERAS groups respectively (P = 0·046). Median hospital stay was lower in the ERAS group (15 versus 19 days; P = 0·029). ERAS-specific costs were euro922 per patient. Mean total costs were euro56 083 per patient in the ERAS group and euro63 821 per patient in the pre-ERAS group (P = 0·273). The mean intensive care unit (ICU) and intermediate care costs were euro9139 and euro13 793 per patient for the ERAS and pre-ERAS groups respectively (P = 0·151). CONCLUSION: ERAS implementation for pancreaticoduodenectomy did not increase the costs in this cohort. Savings were noted in anaesthesia/operating room, medication and laboratory costs. Fewer patients in the ERAS group required an ICU stay.

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for classification of18F-NaF uptake on PET/CT

Abstract Objective: To assess the cutoff values established by ROC curves to classify18F-NaF uptake as normal or malignant. Materials and Methods: PET/CT images were acquired 1 hour after administration of 185 MBq of18F-NaF. Volumes of interest (VOIs) were drawn on three regions of the skeleton as follows: proximal right humerus diaphysis (HD), proximal right femoral diaphysis (FD) and first vertebral body (VB1), in a total of 254 patients, totalling 762 VOIs. The uptake in the VOIs was classified as normal or malignant on the basis of the radiopharmaceutical distribution pattern and of the CT images. A total of 675 volumes were classified as normal and 52 were classified as malignant. Thirty-five VOIs classified as indeterminate or nonmalignant lesions were excluded from analysis. The standardized uptake value (SUV) measured on the VOIs were plotted on an ROC curve for each one of the three regions. The area under the ROC (AUC) as well as the best cutoff SUVs to classify the VOIs were calculated. The best cutoff values were established as the ones with higher result of the sum of sensitivity and specificity. Results: The AUCs were 0.933, 0.889 and 0.975 for UD, FD and VB1, respectively. The best SUV cutoffs were 9.0 (sensitivity: 73%; specificity: 99%), 8.4 (sensitivity: 79%; specificity: 94%) and 21.0 (sensitivity: 93%; specificity: 95%) for UD, FD and VB1, respectively. Conclusion: The best cutoff value varies according to bone region of analysis and it is not possible to establish one value for the whole body.

Warranty Practices and Costs in the Industry of Welding Machines Manufacturing

The objective of the master’s thesis is to define the warranty practices and costs in the welding machines manufacturing company and do a proposal for a warranty policy based on the practices and costs. The study include a disquisition of the warranty practices in the subsidiaries and distributor sales. The disquisition of the warranty practices introduces the information relates to warranty period, warranty costs, including repair, spare part and other costs, the practices with the replaced parts, the utilization rate of the eWarranty system and information relates to special arrangements in the warranties. The warranty costs are defined besides the group level also separately per regions and product families. From some product families the disquisition is done per products. In this study is also done a proposal for a warranty policy for the company. The proposal speaks out the length of warranty period, the compensation of the warranty costs, the practices with replaced parts and usage of eWarranty system.