Transportation planners, engineers, and administrators face the difficult tasks of prioritizing and justifying proposed investments in transportation infrastructure, particularly as government budgets tighten and alternative investments compete for public funding. One means by which professionals can prioritize and justify large transportation investments is by describing how a proposed project will impact an area’s economy in terms of creating new jobs, raising aggregate income, and increasing business revenues. The report begins by examining the general impact of transportation investments on economic development. Then it surveys various methods and tools that have been proposed for estimating economic impacts. Among these, the TREDIS economic impact model is selected and used to estimate the economic impacts of a current interstate highway project in Texas. / text

The following project is a compilation of three separate articles all utilizing a database extracted from the UNUM/Provident Life Insurance Company, including all consecutive short-term disability (STD) claims filed with UNUM from January 1, 1994 to December 31, 1996 from claimants who were also insured for long-term disability (LTD) by UNUM. The resulting sample includes 77,297 claims.The results of these studies are part of a larger investigation that documented the Progression of Disability Benefits (PODB) phenomenon. PODB refers to the migration of workers with work-limiting disabilities through a system of economic benefits resulting in their placement onto Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Claimant and employer demographics were found to influence the PODB. The following articles study three unique ways in which the PODB measure can be informative.The first of the articles tracts the experience of 400 individuals with neurological impairments through the PODB, and compares them with a general disability population on key demographic characteristics. In general, it is found that persons with neurological conditions have greater progression on to advanced disability levels than other types of disabilities. Individual claimants are also younger and male.The second article explores the relationship of integrated disability management(IDM) practices with PODB. It proposes that while the efficacy of IDM programs has been measured by the bottom line, that PODB can be used as an additional tool to assess effectiveness of DM programs. It finds that employers with higher levels of IDM activity will experience a reduced PODB rating.The third and final article examines one industry, Healthcare. It studies how demographics can be used to predict claimant industry as well as PODB performance. Findings reveal that men were more likely to move on to advanced disability benefits while workers in the Healthcare industry were less likely to move on to advanced statuses than employees in other industries. Furthermore, disability type is the greatest predictor of PODB, followed by age for all but one category in which employment sector was the next predictor of PODB. This finding leads to questions regarding how the workplace may contribute to disability and the PODB.

Natural resources and economic development in Africa take place within a set of external and internal factors. These factors range from issues that prevail in the international trading system, political factors and other issues that confront natural resource exploitation and development. Community participation in natural resource development in Africa should incorporate direct economic benefit to host communities, in appropriate cases, as part of equitable benefit and development. In advancing this argument, the research will answer the following question: Are there rights under international and regional human rights regimes that host or local communities in Africa can utilise in order to advance their claim for direct economic benefit from participation in natural resource exploitation? / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of prof Tobias van Reeneen, Faculty of Law, University of Western Cape, South Africa. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2009. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Hinds Community College (HCC) engaged in a study that produced the transitional program. This program was in response to high rates of attrition of the college’s freshmen classes because of poor academic performance. This dissertation evaluated the effectiveness of the transitional program’s main component—the learning community created by placing students in the LLS 1151 College Life course based on their status as residence hall students. HCC’s transitional program is a further elaboration of placement policies that have been a part of the community college landscape for many years. The HCC transitional program incorporates learning communities in combination with HCC’s placement policies and provides an element of structure. This research examined the academic progress of a cohort from its inception in the fall semester of 2006 through 4 years until the conclusion of the spring 2010 semester. This examination included a review and analysis of the performance of the transitional program students who were assigned to learning communities as opposed to the performance of developmental students who were not assigned to learning communities (those who commuted). Specifically, the research evaluated how many students completed programs of study out of those who initially enrolled as residential transitional students and out of those who initially enrolled as nonresidential transitional students, how many credit hours the two groups accumulated over a 4-year period, and performance in basic English and mathematics courses. This study used a causal-comparative design that examined a cohort over a 4-year period while at HCC to examine if there were significant differences between those students who were a part of a learning community compared to those students who were not.

Title: Economic Impact of Jizerska 50 on the Czech Republic and Liberec District Objectives: The main objective of the thesis is to calculate the extent of the economic impact that the expanses of Jizerska 50 visitors have on Czech economy and the economy of Liberec District. The information about the amount and structure of the expenses plus other related information, i. e. the main data used for this calculation, were provided by Jizerska 50 participants themselves. The partial objective is to find out what impact do the expenses of the visitiors have on income of public budgets and to compare them with public support of Jizerska 50. Methods: The case study is based on analysis of internal secondary data from Raul agency, i.e. data that relate to Jizerska 50, and then primarily on the results from questionnaire constructions among its participants. The collected data were used for the calculation which quantified the economic impact of the expenses of the visitors on several indicators of Czech economy and Liberec District economy productivity. Results: The thesis' results claim that 48th Jizerska 50 in year 2015 was visited by 13 183 visitors. Their expenses related to this event generated growth of Czech economy by more than 60,5 million CZK, out of which almost 18,5 million resulted in overall...

Sri Lanka is an island at the Indian Ocean with 65234 km2 and it has a power demand of 2000 MW. The hydro power was the main power source before year 2000, after maximum usage of hydro power Sri Lanka installed fossil fuel power plant to achieve the demand. Then the electricity price gradually increased due to higher increment of fuel price. As the solution for this higher price of electricity the government has to go to new profitable power source the coal power. Finally year 2011 Puttalam coal power plant 300 MW x 1 was installed with the hope of providing the low cost reliable energy supply to Sri Lanka and it will be extended to 300MW x 3 plan in year 2015. Therefore the puttalam coal power plant is the key power plant to the Sri Lankan power generation and it is expected to have the maximum output (base load) to the Power demand of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a tropical country and it has two different weather seasons as rainy season and dry season. The puttalam power plant situated at Kalpitiya peninsula and it has normally dry weather condition, Months of April, October November and December have heavy rain condition (Meteorological Department, Sri Lanka, 2012). The puttalam coal power plant may not achieve full load because of high moisture content at rainy season. So this Thesis carried out to find the capability to achieve the full load with available plant, plant capacity by using different coal qualities. Then find the economical benefits and effect on the environment with the recommended coal for different seasons and also design a storage plan to coal storage at existing coal yard. Based on the historical data and the Meteorological department rain fall data and by doing a technical analysis the recommended coal type was selected and the capability of plant equipment capacity to the recommended coal to achieve the full load was analyzed. Then the coal storage plan was designed according to annual requirement of the different recommended coal and economical benefit was analyzed by considering last year cost for generated power and the generation cost, if recommended coal is used for last year. Finally flue gas analysis was carried out for the recommended coal to find the effect on the environment. The recommended coal for rainy season is with the heating value of 6600 kcal/kg and for dry season it is 6300 kcal/kg. The capacities of main boiler and other plant equipments are capable for the recommended coal to achieve the full load of the plant. Then the design of the coal storage plan was given under figure 4.2 and table 4.1. It was calculated that a profit of 3.932 million US$ can be achieved by using the recommended  coal for the last year and also when compared with the changing price of oil and coal it will be more profitable for the future. Because the oil price increases very rapidly and the increase in coal price is very low compared to the oil price. Finally the SOx and NOx emissions from recommended coal were analyzed and it was within the environmental limits because of the high quality emission reduction plant equipments.

No / Local procurement by public bodies is one type of short food supply chain (SFSC), which have been argued to contribute to economic regeneration and local sustainable development. In the current UK policy environment, quantifying actual local economic gains could add much-needed weight to arguments in favour of local procurement in the NHS and other public bodies. To aid such quantification, this paper exemplifies and evaluates the use of a “quick and simple” tool called LM3, designed to measure the local economic benefit of initiatives like SFSCs. LM3 is calculated for the Cornwall Food Programme (CFP), a localised procurement initiative. The findings confirm that the CFP has a considerable impact on the local economy. Notwithstanding this conclusion, difficulties in data collection combined with inaccuracies inherent to the LM3 process created a large margin of error in the findings. Moreover, a qualitative evaluation of the CFP added a valuable understanding of the wider economic impact of the CFP. The use of an even simpler and more reliable “LM2” multiplier tool is recommended for future studies, accompanied by some qualitative evaluation to create a fuller picture of local economic impacts.

Ces dernières années, la popularité croissante des applications, e.g. les expériences scientifiques, Internet des objets et les réseaux sociaux, a conduit à la génération de gros volumes de données. La gestion de telles données qui de plus, sont hétérogènes et distribuées à grande échelle, constitue un défi important. Dans les systèmes traditionnels tels que les systèmes distribués et parallèles, les systèmes pair-à-pair et les systèmes de grille, répondre à des objectifs tels que l'obtention de performances acceptables tout en garantissant une bonne disponibilité de données constituent des objectifs majeurs pour l'utilisateur, en particulier lorsque ces données sont réparties à travers le monde. Dans ce contexte, la réplication de données, une technique très connue, permet notamment: (i) d'augmenter la disponibilité de données, (ii) de réduire les coûts d'accès aux données et (iii) d'assurer une meilleure tolérance aux pannes. Néanmoins, répliquer les données sur tous les nœuds est une solution non réaliste vu qu'elle génère une consommation importante de la bande passante en plus de l'espace limité de stockage. Définir des stratégies de réplication constitue la solution à apporter à ces problématiques. Les stratégies de réplication de données qui ont été proposées pour les systèmes traditionnels cités précédemment ont pour objectif l'amélioration des performances pour l'utilisateur. Elles sont difficiles à adapter dans les systèmes de cloud. En effet, le fournisseur de cloud a pour but de générer un profit en plus de répondre aux exigences des locataires. Satisfaire les attentes de ces locataire en matière de performances sans sacrifier le profit du fournisseur d'un coté et la gestion élastiques des ressources avec une tarification suivant le modèle 'pay-as-you-go' d'un autre coté, constituent des principes fondamentaux dans les systèmes cloud. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une stratégie de réplication de données pour satisfaire les exigences du locataire, e.g. les performances, tout en garantissant le profit économique du fournisseur. En se basant sur un modèle de coût, nous estimons le temps de réponse nécessaire pour l'exécution d'une requête distribuée. La réplication de données n'est envisagée que si le temps de réponse estimé dépasse un seuil fixé auparavant dans le contrat établi entre le fournisseur et le client. Ensuite, cette réplication doit être profitable du point de vue économique pour le fournisseur. Dans ce contexte, nous proposons un modèle économique prenant en compte aussi bien les dépenses et les revenus du fournisseur lors de l'exécution de cette requête. Nous proposons une heuristique pour le placement des répliques afin de réduire les temps d'accès à ces nouvelles répliques. De plus, un ajustement du nombre de répliques est adopté afin de permettre une gestion élastique des ressources. Nous validons la stratégie proposée par une évaluation basée sur une simulation. Nous comparons les performances de notre stratégie à celles d'une autre stratégie de réplication proposée dans les clouds. L'analyse des résultats obtenus a montré que les deux stratégies comparées répondent à l'objectif de performances pour le locataire. Néanmoins, une réplique de données n'est crée, avec notre stratégie, que si cette réplication est profitable pour le fournisseur. / In recent years, growing popularity of large-scale applications, e.g. scientific experiments, Internet of things and social networking, led to generation of large volumes of data. The management of this data presents a significant challenge as the data is heterogeneous and distributed on a large scale. In traditional systems including distributed and parallel systems, peer-to-peer systems and grid systems, meeting objectives such as achieving acceptable performance while ensuring good availability of data are major challenges for service providers, especially when the data is distributed around the world. In this context, data replication, as a well-known technique, allows: (i) increased data availability, (ii) reduced data access costs, and (iii) improved fault-tolerance. However, replicating data on all nodes is an unrealistic solution as it generates significant bandwidth consumption in addition to exhausting limited storage space. Defining good replication strategies is a solution to these problems. The data replication strategies that have been proposed for the traditional systems mentioned above are intended to improve performance for the user. They are difficult to adapt to cloud systems. Indeed, cloud providers aim to generate a profit in addition to meeting tenant requirements. Meeting the performance expectations of the tenants without sacrificing the provider's profit, as well as managing resource elasticities with a pay-as-you-go pricing model, are the fundamentals of cloud systems. In this thesis, we propose a data replication strategy that satisfies the requirements of the tenant, such as performance, while guaranteeing the economic profit of the provider. Based on a cost model, we estimate the response time required to execute a distributed database query. Data replication is only considered if, for any query, the estimated response time exceeds a threshold previously set in the contract between the provider and the tenant. Then, the planned replication must also be economically beneficial to the provider. In this context, we propose an economic model that takes into account both the expenditures and the revenues of the provider during the execution of any particular database query. Once the data replication is decided to go through, a heuristic placement approach is used to find the placement for new replicas in order to reduce the access time. In addition, a dynamic adjustment of the number of replicas is adopted to allow elastic management of resources. Proposed strategy is validated in an experimental evaluation carried out in a simulation environment. Compared with another data replication strategy proposed in the cloud systems, the analysis of the obtained results shows that the two compared strategies respond to the performance objective for the tenant. Nevertheless, a replica of data is created, with our strategy, only if this replication is profitable for the provider.

Ziel: Entwicklung eines gesundheitsökonomischen Evaluationskonzepts zum Nachweis einer Kostenreduktion unter gleichzeitiger Optimierung des medizinischen Nutzens durch pharmakogenetisches Screening bei Erstdiagnose einer Schizophrenie. Finale Zielsetzung ist die Aufnahme der pharmakogenetischen a priori-Diagnostik für die Indikation Schizophrenie in die GKV-Regelversorgung. Methodik: Basierend auf dem aktuellen Stand gendiagnostischer Forschung sowie der evidenzbasierten Schizophrenietherapie wurde eine prospektive, randomisierte und kontrollierte, dreiarmige, offene, multizentrische Pilotstudie im Paralleldesign über 3 Jahre konzeptioniert. Studienpopulation: 300 Patienten (1:1:1) im Alter von 18 bis 65 Jahren mit erstmaliger F20-Diagnose (ICD-10). Interventionen: pharmakogenetisches Screening und integrierte Versorgung; integrierte Versorgung; Standardversorgung. Die Erhebung des medizinischen Nutzens erfolgt durch Messung des klinischen Outcome bzgl. der patientenrelevanten Endpunkte Mortalität, Morbidität, Lebensqualität und Nebenwirkungen zu definierten Zeitpunkten. Perspektivisch relevante Kosten werden im "piggy back"-Verfahren ermittelt. Ergebnisse: Angesichts zurzeit bestehender Limitationen im deutschen Gesundheitssystem (z.B. unzureichendes intersektorales Schnittstellenmanagement bei der Arzneimittelversorgung und Informationsweitergabe) wird die Integrierte Versorgung als geeignete Versorgungsform für den Nutzennachweis eingestuft. Die Integrierte Versorgung stellt jedoch momentan nicht den allgemeinen Standard der psychiatrischen Patientenversorgung dar. Aus GKV-Perspektive wesentliche Kostentreiber der Schizophrenietherapie sind Rückfälle, Krankenhausaufenthalte, Arbeitslosigkeit und vorzeitige Verrentung. Eine Verringerung der Häufigkeit dieser Parameter könnte z.B. zu einer Reduktion der Erstjahres-Behandlungskosten (zurzeit ca. 30% der Gesamtkosten) führen. Die Kosten-Effektivitäts-Analyse erweist sich als Studienform mit der geringsten Anfälligkeit für Bias und Confounder. Trotz einer vergleichsweise hohen externen Validität ist das Studiensetting nicht uneingeschränkt übertragbar auf die Versorgungsrealität des deutschen Gesundheitssystems. Es existiert aktuell keine generelle Empfehlung für den Einsatz der Gendiagnostik zur Steuerung der Arzneimitteltherapie in Psychiatrie. Ebenso hat die integrierte Versorgung bisher keinen umfassenden Einzug in den psychiatrischen Behandlungsalltag gefunden, so dass die beschriebenen Limitationen einen positiven Nutzennachweis erschweren. Dennoch ist das Konzept als praktisch umsetzbar zu bewerten. Schlussfolgerung: Bei dieser Faktenlage ist das Interesse der GKV an der Veranlassung einer gesundheitsökonomischen Evaluation mit dem Ziel einer Erstattungsfähigkeit des a priori durchgeführten pharmakogenetischen Screenings bei Schizophrenie als eher gering einzustufen. Jedoch lassen das Update der S3-Praxisleitlinie mit dem Einbezug der strukturierten u. integrierten Versorgung sowie der Aktionsplan „Individualisierte Medizin“ des Bundesforschungsministeriums auf eine Fokussierung auf diese Fragestellung und veränderte Interessenlage bzgl. der Initiierung der Pilotstudie hoffen. Weitere Forschungstätigkeit sowie die praktische Erprobung neuer gendiagnostischen Verfahren sind, basierend auf versorgungsbezogenen Pilotstudien wie der hier konzeptionierten, fachübergreifend erforderlich, um die Relevanz der Methodik für den psychiatrischen Versorgungsalltag zu belegen. / Purpose: Development of a health-economic investigation method to study whether a cost reduction under concurrent optimisation of the medical use exists by using pharmacogenetic a- priori- screening with first diagnosis of a schizophrenia. Final objective is the reimbursement of pharmacogenetic diagnostics for the indication schizophrenia in the German health statutory insurance (GKV). Methods: A prospective, randomised and controlled, 3-armed, parallel, open, multicentre pilot study with a duration of 3 years was designed based on the actual status of genetic-diagnostic research as well as the evidence-based therapy of schizophrenia. Study population: 300 patients (1:1:1) aged 18 to 65 years with initial F20 diagnosis (ICD-10). Interventions: pharmacogenetic screening and integrated care; integrated care; standard care. For evaluation of the medical benefit the clinical outcome is measured at defined times with regard to the patients' relevant endpoints mortality, morbidity, quality of life and side effects. In perspective relevant costs are determined by "piggy back" procedure. Results: In view of actually existing limitations within the German health system (e.g., insufficient intersectional medication and information management) the integrated care is considered being a suitable setting to demonstrate the advantage of using pharmacogenetic screening. Nevertheless, the integrated care does not show the general standard of the psychiatric patient's care at the moment. From GKV perspective essential cost drivers of schizophrenia therapy are relapses, hospital stays, unemployment and untimely superannuation. Diminishing the rate of these parametres could lead, e.g., to a reduction of the first year medical costs (at the moment approx. 30% of the total expenses). The cost-effectiveness analysis seems to be the study form with the slightest susceptibility to bias and confounding. In spite of a relatively high external validity the study setting is not unconditionally transferable to the German health system. Currently no general recommendation exists for the application of the genetic diagnostics to manage medication therapy in psychiatry. Up to now also the integrated care has not found a comprehensive entry in psychiatric practice, so that the described limitations are complicating a positive use proof. Nevertheless, the investigational concept can be regarded as feasible. Conclusion: Based on the existing situation the GKV's interest in performing a health-economic evaluation, which is focussed on the reimbursement of pharmacogenetic a priori-diagnostics in schizophrenia, is considered to be low. However, the situation may change in view of the expected update of the S3-practise guideline with the focus on structured and integrated care as well as the action plan „individualised medicine“ of the German federal research ministry. Thus, there is hope for changing interests in a pilot study. Based on care-related pilot studies as presented here, further research activities and practical testing of recent gene diagnostic procedures are necessary to demonstrate the relevance of the methodology for psychiatric practice.

Sustainable consumption and reducing food waste have become critical issues in recent years as the world faces environmental and humanitarian challenges. This study aims to identify the perspectives of various actors (social workers, representatives from local organizations, and an individual) on social work interventions towards food waste reduction in Gävle Sweden, and their potential benefits to the environment and vulnerable individuals. A qualitative study through semi-structured interviews of five participants was conducted by the researchers, to identify the perspectives of actors in social work intervention programs related to sustainable consumption and food waste reduction. The result of the interview was transcribed and analyzed using the Atlas. Tue 23. The study identified awareness and campaigns, collaborations with local businesses and organizations with regard to food banks and donations, and food recovery and redistribution programs as social work interventions on sustainable consumption through food waste reduction. The social work interventions identified the positive impacts they have on the environment and vulnerable individuals.