The aim of this study is to evaluate an alternative socio-economical valuation method (i.e., Hybrid Real Options, HRO) to the traditional benefit cost method (CBA) for the evaluation of investments within Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The proposed alternative method will be evaluated by the use of a case study where it is applied and compared to the results of the traditional method. The case study evaluates the socio-economical effects of an investment in Variable Speed Limits along a section of the motorway E18. The results of the study shows that the choice of evaluation methods affects both the investment strategy and the estimated socio-economical benefits of the investment. Using the HRO method yields twice as high socio-economical benefits compared to the CBA method. The main reason for this being that HRO account for risk and uncertainties wheras CBA only accounts for the most probable outcome of the investment. The choice of method is a complex task that involves many stakeholders however a more critical approach to the choice of socio-economical evaluation method is advocated based on the results of this study.

This thesis project compares the performance of a homogeneous sample of United States Navy Bachelor Enlisted Quarters built using the Military Construction process. Projects will be broken into two sub-samples of design/bid/build and design/build projects to see if one project delivery method is superior in regards to time and cost. Project duration, project duration per bed, project time growth, cost growth and cost per bed will be statistically compared. Upon completion of the analysis the hypothesis that design/build projects are superior to design/bid/build projects in regards to time and cost will be tested. / Contract number: N62271-97-G-0073.

Landfill and mixed wastes are more expensive to dispose of than sorted wastes, and also decrease the possibilities for recycling of wastes. This thesis aimed towards determining what the potential benefits could be with leasing a sorting site and whether or not Destroy RC AB should introduce a sorting site to their business from a primarily economic perspective. The materials included in landfill and mixed wastes were determined and were prioritized differently depending on the economic and environmental benefit from sorting and recycling each material. If a sorting site was introduced to Destroy’s network of processes, unsorted waste types would be sent to the sorting site from demolition sites instead of to landfill and recycling sites. Scenarios with different variations of amounts of wastes at the sorting site, compositions of wastes, truck types used for transports, and sorting speeds were studied and used for total cost analyses

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / John M. Crespi / The objective of this analysis is to develop a demand model for the Sunsweet Cooperative and from this model, determine if the benefits to Sunweet’s advertising, as measured by the change in revenues, exceed the advertising costs. Weekly retail scanner data from July 20, 2008 through June 13, 2010 were used. Ordinary least squares regression equations were estimated to determine the overall demand for Sunsweet dried prunes. Two different models were estimated, one for Sunsweet’s overall prune demand and another for the Sunsweet’s Ones product. The advertising elasticity for the total dried prune demand was 0.10 and for the Ones product was 0.24. The demand equations demonstrated that Sunsweet’s advertising expenditures are increasing the overall demand for their dried prunes and their specific Ones product. What cannot be determined from the demand estimations is whether increase in revenues was greater than the cost of the advertising program. This is an especially important question for Sunsweet as it can be discerned from the data that Sunsweet’s advertising expenditures are quite large as a fraction of its revenues when compared with other similar food sellers. Using the regression equations, a benefit-cost simulation was conducted. We developed a measure that tells us how much the quantities sold of prunes would be affected by increased advertising expenditures by Sunsweet while taking into account the costs of advertising under an assumption of monopolistic competition. Two different scenarios were evaluated, one with a shutdown condition that did not allow average revenue to be below average cost and another without this shutdown condition. The total Sunsweet prune model resulted in an average benefit cost of 2.143 with the shutdown constraint and 1.845 without the shutdown constraint. The Ones product model resulted in an average benefit-cost estimate of 2.672 with the shutdown constraint and 2.358 without the shutdown constraint. Overall these ratios are good for a company operating under monopolistic competition and suggest that for every dollar spent on the advertising campaign, the average return was near to or greater than $2. Overall our analysis showed that Sunsweet’s advertising expenditures are increasing their overall demand and their benefits of advertising are exceeding their costs of advertising.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Timothy Keane / Wichita is an historic keystone in American history. Since 2002, Wichita has begun another period of urbanization and the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation (WDDC) was formed to help facilitate the needs of both the people wanting to move downtown and the developers who aim to realize the city’s historic potential. With the help of the WDDC the City of Wichita adopted the Project Downtown Master Plan developed by the Boston based firm Goody Clancy in 2010. The Project Downtown has a market driven development strategy that has little concern for ecology. The economically driven master plan gives little reason for a developer to be ecologically and socially oriented. The City of Wichita does have a rudimentary incentive focused on public infrastructure. Essentially, the City of Wichita will front the money to help develop the public infrastructure of a site to ease the total development costs. This is the key to begin defining the Project Downtown’s green spaces that are socially and ecologically oriented. Green infrastructure is a method of developing land used by pedestrian, automobile, and other human needs in a way that is ecologically sensitive. The general idea of green infrastructure is to open up the barrier of an impermeable infrastructure created by urban development to the soil below. The goal is to get as close to an undeveloped footprint as possible while still meeting the needs of the humans who occupy the area. This project looks at the Catalyst Site C-2 (chosen by the Project Downtown as an integral step of development) and designs the given program using several green infrastructure techniques. The proposed design is treated as a pilot project intended to treat 80% of the stormwater runoff developed by the building, automobile, and pedestrian space during a two year, one hour storm. This schematic design would cost roughly $536,00 designed using traditional grey infrastructure of impervious pavements that drain directly to the Arkansas River. By implementing green infrastructure the costs total roughly $533,000 saving $4,000 and greatly improving the ecological and social benefits of the design.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a renewable energy technology that has to overcome several key challenges before achieving its ultimate goal of producing baseload power on a commercial scale. The economic challenge of deploying an OTEC plant remains the biggest barrier to implementation. Although small OTEC demonstration plants and recent advances in subsystem technologies have proven OTEC’s technical merits, the process still lacks the crucial operational data required to justify investments in large commercial OTEC plants on the order of 50-100 megawatts of net electrical power (MWe-net). A pre-commercial pilot plant on the order of 5-10 MWe-net is required for an OTEC market to evolve. In addition to the economic challenge,OTEC plants have potential for adverse environmental impacts from redistribution of nutrients and residual chemicals in the discharge plume. Although long-term operational records are not available for commercial sizeOTEC plants, synergistic operational data can be leveraged from the desalination industry to improve the potential for OTEC commercialization. Large capacity desalination plants primarily use membranes or thermal evaporator tubes to transform enormous amounts of seawater into freshwater. Thermal desalination plants in particular possess many of the same technical, economic, and environmental traits as a commercial scale OTEC plant. Substantial long-term economic data and environmental impact results are now widely available since commercial desalination began in the 1950s. Analysis of this data indicates that the evolution of the desalination industry could be akin to the potential future advancement of OTEC. Furthermore, certain scenarios exist where a combined OTEC-desalination plant provides a new opportunity for commercial plants. This paper seeks to utilize operational data from the desalination industry as a progressive approach towards OTEC commercialization.

<div> <p>The residential building sector is one of the most energy intensive sectors in today’s civilization. With population growth and a rise in number of homeowners the effect is bound to worsen. A wave of green and sustainable strategies is on the rise hoping to moderate some of the negative effect on the environment. From embracing renewable sources of energy as an alternative to fossil fuels, to improving existing home systems to become more efficient, the construction industry is evolving into becoming more energy conscious. One of the biggest obstacles to this wave is a lack of awareness and a fear of initial costs among contractors, homeowners and clients alike. This research will use Life Cycle Cost Analysis on a varying combination of residential energy systems and the researcher hopes to establish the trade-off between initial investment and long-term benefits. The case being considered is a residence located in Indiana, US. Using past and current utility bills and energy simulation data of different energy consuming systems in the residence over its lifetime, economic models are generated. This research establishes that a combination of passive and active energy conservation measures results in the lowest life cycle cost. The study will be beneficial for further research and as a framework for residential life cycle cost analysis.</p></div>

Todos os países, independente do modelo de assistência à saúde adotado, têm compartilhado de um problema comum, os custos explosivos frente a recursos ou orçamentos limitados. Assim, custos crescentes e elevados dos serviços de saúde têm afetado todos os prestadores de serviços, sejam públicos ou privados. Na atual realidade financeira da saúde os hospitais terão que adotar um sistema para se ter um melhor controle dos processos de trabalho e informações precisas que possibilitem avaliar os resultados financeiros do hospital. As enfermeiras administradoras estão cada vez mais sendo envolvidas em decisões financeiras, no planejamento orçamentário de suas instituições, tendo que gerir recursos (humanos, materiais e financeiros) muitas vezes escassos. Diante destas considerações, constata-se a importância da enfermeira enquanto geradora de receita por ações prescritas ao paciente e como gestora das atividades realizadas na sua unidade, demandadas por outro profissional, principalmente em um hospital privado, onde as maiores fontes pagadoras são os convênios. Assim os objetivos desse estudo foram: calcular o faturamento gerado pelos procedimentos de enfermagem em uma unidade de terapia intensiva e calcular a porcentagem do faturamento gerado pela enfermagem em relação ao faturamento total da UTI. Tratou-se de uma pesquisa exploratória, descritiva, documental, com abordagem quantitativa. Foi realizado em uma UTI geral, de um hospital geral, privado, de grande porte, com 407 leitos, na cidade de São Paulo. A amostra foi de 159 pacientes. As fontes para obtenção dos dados foram as prescrições de enfermagem, as prescrições médicas, a fatura do paciente, o guia para apontamento em planilhas e procedimentos da qualidade. Foram elaborados dois instrumentos para coleta de dados. Concluiu-se que os procedimentos da prescrição de enfermagem, que mais contribuíram, foram: verificar débito cardíaco, instalar VAMP, colocar trackcare, trocar filtro umidificador, verificar pressão capilar pulmonar e fazer curativos e os procedimentos de enfermagem, da prescrição médica, que mais contribuíram foram: dieta enteral, dieta parenteral (NPP) e diálise. Em média, o faturamento recebido de cada paciente foi de R$8.918,30; o faturamento dos procedimentos de enfermagem, oriundos da prescrição de enfermagem foi de R$1.230,33 e os da prescrição médica foi de R$508,57. Em média o faturamento da prescrição de enfermagem foi de 11,3%, ou seja, o faturamento da prescrição de enfermagem foi maior que o da prescrição médica; sendo 5,4% com mão-de-obra e 5,9% foram com materiais e em média, 3,8% do faturamento obtido de cada paciente, foi da prescrição médica; desses, 1,4% foi com mão-de-obra e 2,4% foi com materiais. Obteve-se, então, que os procedimentos de enfermagem foram responsáveis por 15,1% do faturamento total da UTI. A abordagem do tema representou um grande desafio pela falta de literatura específica a respeito, além de ser uma realidade, praticamente, nova para a enfermeira que, hoje, é considerada gestora de sua unidade de negócio. / Every country, no matter the health assistance model adopted, has been sharing a common problem: high costs facing limited resources and budgets. Thus, growing and high costs of health services have been affecting all public or private service providers. In the current financial health reality, hospitals will have to adopt a system to get a better control of work processes and precise information to make possible to evaluate the Hospital’s financial results. Nurse managers are even more involved in financial decisions, and budget institution planning and have to manager human, material and financial resources which sometimes are rare. Facing those considerations, the importance of the nurses is proven as income generator by actions prescribed to patients and as managers of activities held at their units, demanded by another professional, mainly at a private hospital, where major payer sources are medical health care. Thus, this study objects were: calculating incoming generated by nursing procedures at a intensive care unit and calculating percentage of incoming generated by nursing facing the total IUC incoming. It was an exploratory, descriptive, documental and quantitative approach research. It was held at a general ICU at a general private big hospital with 407 beds in the city of São Paulo. 159 patients were enrolled for the sample. Data sources were nursing prescriptions, medical prescriptions, patient’s invoice, permit to note in spreadsheet and quality procedures. Two data collection instruments were elaborated. We concluded nursing prescription procedures that contributed most were: verifying heart debt, installing VAMP, placing trackcare, changing humidifier filters, verifying pulmonary capillary pressure and plastering and nursing medical prescription procedures that contributed most were: enteral diet, parenteral diet (NPP) and dialysis. As an average, incoming received from each patient was R$8.918,30; nursing procedure incoming, from nursing prescription was R$1.230,33 and those from medical prescription was R$508,57. Nursing prescription incoming was 11,3%, that means, nursing prescription incoming was higher than the medical prescription one; nursing prescription turnover was higher than medical prescription turnover; it was 5,4% with workforce and 5,9% with materials, and 3,8% of each patient turnover was from medical prescription; of these, 1,4% was with workforce and 2,4% with materials. We concluded that nursing procedures were responsible for 15,1% of total ICU incoming. This approach represented a great challenge due to the lack of specific literature, and it is an almost new reality for nurses considered managers of their business unit today.

Introdução: Os campos de tecido de algodão constituem uma das barreiras contra a invasão de micro-organismos nos sítios cirúrgicos dos pacientes e para proteção dos profissionais de saúde contra a exposição a fluidos orgânicos. Utiliza-se para cada procedimento, no mínimo, um pacote padrão composto por seis campos cirúrgicos duplos de algodão, um campo cirúrgico simples de algodão e um campo duplo de algodão para embalagem, que são reprocessáveis, denominado LAP cirúrgico. Objetivo: Mapear as etapas e atividades referentes ao processo de reprocessamento de campos de tecido de algodão duplos e simples integrantes dos pacotes de LAP cirúrgico e identificar o custo direto do reprocessamento de campos de tecido de algodão duplos e simples integrantes dos pacotes de LAP cirúrgico. Método: Pesquisa quantitativa, exploratória, descritiva, do tipo estudo de caso único, realizada no Hospital Santa Lucinda (HSL), Hospital de Ensino da Pontifícia Universidade de São Paulo. Calculou-se o custo direto multiplicando-se o tempo despendido por profissionais envolvidos no reprocessamento do pacote de LAP cirúrgico (Camareiras, Auxiliares e Técnicos de Enfermagem) pelo custo unitário da mão de obra direta (MOD), somando-se ao custo dos materiais. Para a realização dos cálculos utilizou-se a moeda brasileira (R$). Resultados: Foram mapeadas e validadas quatro etapas relativas ao reprocessamento de campos de tecido de algodão: processamento das roupas por lavanderia terceirizada, recepção das roupas no Serviço de Rouparia, montagem e esterilização dos pacotes de LAP cirúrgico e armazenamento dos pacotes de LAP cirúrgico no Centro de Material e Esterilização. O custo direto do reprocessamento, por pacote de LAP cirúrgico, correspondeu a R$ 23,09, sendo o custo com materiais o mais representativo (R$ 20,70 - 92,50%). Os custos, unitário e total, dos campos de tecido de algodão (duplo, duplo para embalagem e simples) impactaram predominantemente no custo total final dos materiais (R$ 19,02 -91,90%) utilizados. A partir do agrupamento das cirurgias/procedimentos relativos às 14 especialidades atendidas no HSL, considerando três meses típicos, estimou-se o consumo médio mensal de 1139 pacotes de LAP cirúrgico, totalizando R$ 33.226,51. Conclusão: O conhecimento do custo direto do reprocessamento do pacote de LAP cirúrgico poderá auxiliar nas tomadas de decisões em relação aos recursos envolvidos evitando desperdícios ao contribuir com elementos que propiciem o gerenciamento de custos / Introduction: Drapes made of cotton constitute one of the barriers against the invasion of microorganisms into the surgical sites of patients, while protecting health professionals against exposure to organic fluids. Per procedure, at least one standard package is needed, consisting of six double cotton surgical drapes, one simple cotton surgical drape and one double cotton drape for packaging, which may be reprocessed, named surgical LAP. Objective: Map the stages and activities regarding the process of reprocessing double and simple cotton drapes, composing the surgical LAP packages, and identify the direct cost for this reprocessing. Method: Quantitative, exploratory, descriptive, single-case study conducted at Hospital Santa Lucinda (HSL), a teaching hospital of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. The direct cost was calculated by multiplying the time spent by professionals involved in the reprocessing of surgical LAP packages (cleaners, nursing technicians and nursing aides) by the unitary cost of the direct workforce (DWF), added to the cost of the materials. The Brazilian currency (R$) was used in the calculations. Results: Four stages regarding the reprocessing of cotton drapes were mapped and validated: processing of clothes by an outsourced laundry, entry of the clothes into the Clothing Service, putting together and sterilizing surgical LAP packages and storing surgical LAP packages in the Material and Sterilization Center. The reprocessing direct cost, per surgical LAP package, corresponded to R$ 23.09, with the cost for materials being the most significant(R$ 20.70 - 92.50%). The costs, both unitary and total, for the cotton drapes (double, double for packaging and simple) had a predominant impact on the final total cost for the used materials(R$ 19.02 - 91.90%). Based on the grouping of surgeries/procedures regarding the 14 specialties available in the HSL, considering three typical months, a mean monthly consumption of 1139 surgical LAP packages was estimated, totaling R$ 33,226.51. Conclusion: Learning the direct cost for reprocessing surgical LAP packages may assist in making decisions regarding the resources involved in this process, thus avoiding waste by contributing with elements that enable the management of costs.

Ao longo das últimas décadas, a logística vem aumentando sua importância no âmbito empresarial e acadêmico. Em um cenário globalizado e de crescente competitividade, as soluções de logística vêm evoluindo de aplicações ad hoc e fragmentadas para uma visão de logística integrada. O conceito de logística integrada converge para uma visão baseada em processos que têm a finalidade de alcançar um nível de serviço desejado com o menor custo total. Neste contexto, a gestão da cadeia de suprimentos GCS, vem ampliar a visão além das fronteiras intraorganizacionais, através da prática de uma gestão colaborativa para o atendimento das necessidades do cliente final com o menor custo total, via gestão de processos, desde o fornecedor do fornecedor até o cliente do cliente. Com base nesse modelo de gestão, há um desafio da contabilidade gerencial para acompanhar tal evolução, a fim de: oferecer apoio aos gestores, gerar análises e informações para tomada de decisão, aumentar a confiança e o nível colaborativo entre os parceiros comerciais e ser o facilitador para troca de informações de custos e na gestão dos custos interorganizacionais. Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo verificar em que extensão são aplicados, em empresas brasileiras, conceitos tratados na literatura sobre logística integrada e GCS, e se estão sendo utilizados instrumentos específicos de avaliação econômicofinanceira e de custos no ambiente da logística e da GCS. A metodologia utilizada fundamentou-se na aplicação de pesquisa tipo survey, elaborada com base na revisão bibliográfica, e aplicada aos profissionais que trabalham com processos logísticos e de GCS. De acordo com os resultados da pesquisa, conclui-se que o conceito de logística integrada está razoavelmente assimilado pelos profissionais, embora não tenha sido verificada utilização extensiva de instrumentos de análise de custo total. Em relação à aplicação de conceitos de GCS, há ainda um grande caminho a percorrer. A pesquisa também evidenciou que há carência quanto à utilização de ferramentas específicas de análise e gestão de custos dos processos logísticos e da cadeia de suprimentos. A pesquisa indica uma defasagem entre o suporte que a área de contabilidade gerencial poderia fornecer às áreas de logística e GCS e aquele efetivamente prestado. / Throughout last decades, Logistics has been enhancing its importance in business and academic areas. In a globalized and competitive scenario, logistics solutions are moving from ad hoc and fragmented applications to integrated logistics. The concept of integrated logistics is changing to a process-based vision, which aims to reach a desired service level at minimum cost. In this context, the Supply Chain Management SCM raises the opinions beyond intra-organizational borders, by means of practicing collaborative management, as to satisfy the clients´necessities at minimum cost. Regarding this, it can be done through process management, from the suppliers supplier to the clients client. Based on this management model, there is a challenge from managerial accounting as to follow such evolution, and its aims are: to give support to managers, to generate analysis and information to decision making, to raise confidence and the collaborative level amongst commercial partners and to facilitate costs information change and inter-organizational cost management. The goal of this work was to verify to which extent are concepts treated in literature - concerning integrated logistics and SCM - being applied in Brazilian companies. Moreover, to verify whether or not are specific economical-financial evaluation and cost tools being used in logistics environment and in SCM. The methodology was focused on applying a survey research, made through bibliographical review, which was answered by professionals working with logistic processes and SCM. According to the obtained results, it can be concluded that the concept of integrated logistics is considerably understood by its professionals. However, it could not be verified the extensive use of whole cost analysis tools. Concerning the application of SCM concepts, there is still a long way to go. Furthermore, there is a lack of using of supply chain, logistic process and cost analysis specific tools. This research indicates a gap between the support the controllership area could offer to logistic areas and SCM and the real one being offered.