The master thesis deals with national accounts, particularly with symmetric input-output tables and utilisation for research of investments change impact. The main aim is to show national accounts exploitation for economical modelling and a manual for modelling of concrete impact. This thesis concentrates on the topic of calculation of static model with application on real data of Czech Republic. The base of calculation is technical coefficients analyse.

The increasing demand for mineral-based resources that face supply risks calls for managing the supply chains for these resources at the regional level. Cobalt is a widely used cathode material in lithium-ion batteries, which form the major portion of batteries used for renewable energy storage - a necessary technology for electrifying mobility and overcoming the challenge of intermittency, thus making renewable energy more reliable and energy generation more sustainable. This necessitates understanding cobalt's supply risks and for the Untied States, identifying sources of cobalt available for future use via recycling or mining. These needs are addressed in this work using single and multiregional input-output (MRIO) analysis in combination with graph theory. An MRIO-based approach is developed to obtain the trade network of cobalt and offer a more expedient way to identify potential critical material sources embodied in commodities made domestically. Commodities containing cobalt were disaggregated from two input-output (IO) models and the trade structure of cobalt at the national and state level was observed and compared. The significance of identified key sectors is measured according to several criteria and differences in sectors highlighted in the national versus subnational networks suggests that analysis at the two regional aggregation levels provides alternative insights. Results from mining the IO networks for cobalt highlight the geographical distribution of its use and industries to further investigate as potential sources for secondary feedstock.

More and more local governments (municipalities and county councils) include the indirect climate impacts of consumption in their environmental work. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an established tool for inventorying both direct and indirect impacts of a product or service, but when the climate impact of an entire organization's consumption of products and services is of interest, the inventory of data can easily become excessive. Through the years, various methods for enabling life cycle inventory on the organizational level have been developed. Hybrid-LCA is one of them where the term "hybrid" comes from that the method combines a so-called bottom up with a top down approach of the data inventory. The practical application of hybrid-LCA and the usefulness of the assessment results for local governments are not self-evident. This study aims to investigate the practical application of hybrid-LCA as a tool for inventorying climate impact for municipalities’ and county councils’ consumption. The purpose includes identifying the challenges associated with the practical procedure when conducting a hybrid-LCA and evaluating the inventory results’ usefulness in municipalities and county councils’ climate work. The results of the study are based on semi-structured interviews, a case study in which hybrid LCA is applied and a workshop where the case study is evaluated. The results show that the hybrid-LCA enables both a holistic approach to the climate impact and a level of detail for selected areas, making it possible to prioritize areas and identify measures to reduce the climate impact from consumption. The main challenges that arise in the practical procedure of the hybrid-LCA are associated with inventory and verification of foreground data and matching purchases of product groups to standardized classifications. To simplify the execution, increase transparency and facilitate monitoring, local governments are recommended to investigate the possibility of coordinating purchasing system and labeling product groups, in accordance with standardized classifications. It is also recommended to request information about a products weight and material content from suppliers. The uncertainties associated with the outcome of a hybrid-LCA are and remain large, therefore it is important that the results are communicated in terms of potential environmental impacts.

This paper describes the building of a parallel converter for a high-speed serial bus. The high-speed serial port of the Macintosh personal computer is used to implement the bus, while an MC68000 Educational Computer Board is used to perform the serial-to-parallel conversion. The device's performance is evaluated, and possible methods for improving its performance are discussed.

The primary objective of this study was to estimate the impact that an increase in recreational expenditures, resulting from water quality improvements of Klamath Lake, would have upon the Klamath County economy. As the sales of the economy expand to serve the needs of the recreationists, real benefits will be forthcoming to the businesses and households of the county in the forms of more business and higher incomes. To estimate the total impact of the increased volume of recreational expenditures that may be made in the economy, the economic relationships of the local economy had to be determined. Primary data were collected from business firms in the county to construct an input-output model of the county's economy. The level of recreational expenditures that would be made in the county as the water quality of the lake improved were estimated. This was done for two different stages of water quality improvement. The estimated levels of recreational expenditures were then analyzed within the input-output framework to estimate the total increase in the sales of the economy and to estimate the increase in income of households in the county. / Graduation date: 1971

Interindustry, or input-output analysis is a widely used economic tool in regional analysis. This study investigates the relative worth of alternative types of input data for such models. Primary data are defined as first-hand, or survey data; secondary data are defined as second-hand, or published data. Procurement of primary data is generally much more expensive than for secondary data. Most regional economists have long held that, in general, primary data are superior to secondary data for regional investigations. This study attempts to assess the value of primary versus secondary data in view of the wide variation in collection costs. Two recently published input-output studies for the 1958-60 Arizona economy were utilized to accomplish this goal. One model used mostly primary data; the second model was compiled entirely from secondary data sources. Following careful considerations of base-period differences, geographical overlap, and sector definitions, two models-- the ARZ and the CRB--were constructed from the two source studies so as to be commensurable for statistical comparisons. The ARZ model was derived from the source study that was compiled entirely from secondary data sources; the CRB model was compiled from the source study that used mostly primary input data. Several nonparametric statistical tests were utilized on several components of the ARZ and CRB models to test for statistical similarities and dissimilarities. In general, analyses indicate strong statistical similarity between the two derived models for aggregative I-0 characteristics such as entire matrices and output multipliers, but less similarity for less aggregative components such as sub-matrices and columns of matrices. For example, comparisons between entire technical and between interdependency matrices fail to reject the null hypothesis of no median difference at the alpha level of 5 per cent. At still more unaggregated component analysis, such as for columns within technical and interdependency columns a reasonable degree of statistical similarity persisted. One chapter (V) focuses on the two derived models as they relate to water resources planning implications for Arizona. Results are similar to those for the non-water analyses; however, in the case of weighted water multipliers the similarities between the ARZ and CRB models are remarkably close. Based on an assumed short-run change of 10 per cent in deliveries to final demand for all sectors in the economy, the models differed in predictions of induced aggregate water requirements by only 9000 acre-feet of water, or less than 2 per cent. Results from the study cast doubt on the commonly held assumption of primary-data supremacy in regional interindustry studies. Results also indicate that the most important component for regional economic analysis is the final demand for each sector rather than the interindustry flows. This follows from the narrow clustering of values for output multipliers consistently observed in regional I-0 studies, and reaffirmed in this study. Therefore, students of regional economies are advised to spend marginal resources (money, time, energy) compiling more accurate final demand vectors rather than developing more accurate endogenous interindustry flows.

In the context of the transformation toward a "green economy," issues related to natural resource use have rapidly increased in importance in European and international policy debates. The large number of studies applying economy-wide material flow analysis so far mostly produced aggregated national indicators, making the results difficult to connect to policies, which are often designed for single sectors or consumption areas. This paper provides a detailed assessment of the composition of EU's material footprint in its global context, aiming at identifying the main product groups contributing to overall material consumption and specifying the geographical sources for the raw materials required to satisfy EU's final demand. Based on multi-regional input¿output (MRIO) modeling, we apply production layer decomposition to assess supply chains and their structural changes from 1995 to 2011. The global MRIO database used in this study is EXIOBASE 3, which disaggregates 200 products and 163 industries, of which 33 represent material extraction sectors. By that means, we increase the level of detail to a degree where policies can more easily connect to. We find that the generally growing material footprint of the EU was characterized by a dramatic shift regarding the origin of raw materials, with the share of materials extracted within the EU territory falling from 68 % in 1995 to 35 % in 2011. In 2011, raw materials extracted in China to produce exports to the EU already contributed an equal share to EU's material footprint as material extraction within the EU itself. Import dependency is most critical for the material group of metal ores, with only 13 % of all metals required as inputs to EU final demand stemming from within the EU. Regarding product composition, construction was confirmed as the most important sector contributing to the material footprint, followed by the group of manufacturing products based on biomass. Materials embodied in service sector activities together contributed a quarter to the total material footprint in 2011, making services an important, but currently disregarded area for European resource policies. We also find that supply chain structures became more complex over time, with a growing part located outside the EU territory. (authors' abstract)

Material flow-based indicators play an important role in indicator sets related to green and resource-efficient growth. This paper examines the global flows of materials and the amounts of materials directly and indirectly necessary to satisfy domestic final demand in different countries world-wide. We calculate the indicator Raw Material Consumption (RMC), also referred to as Material Footprint (MF), by applying a global, multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model based on the GTAP database and extended by material extraction data. We examine world-wide patterns of material extraction and materials embodied in trade and consumption, investigating changes between 1997 and 2007. We find that flows of materials related to international trade have increased by almost 60% between 1997 and 2007. We show that the differences in Material Footprints per capita are huge, ranging from up to 100 tonnes in the rich, oil-exporting countries to values as low as 1.5 to 2 tonnes in some developing countries. We also quantify the differences between the indicators Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) and RMC, illustrating that net material exporters generally have a DMC larger than RMC, while the reverse is observed for net importers. Finally, we confirm the fact that most countries with stable or declining DMCs actually show increasing RMCs, indicating the occurrence of leakage effects, which are not fully captured by DMC. This challenges the world-wide use of DMC as a headline indicator for national material consumption and calls for the consideration of upstream material requirements of international trade flows.

As network processors have advanced in speed and efficiency they have become more and more complex in both hardware and software configurations. Intel's IXP1200 is one of these new network processors that has been given to different universities worldwide to conduct research on. The goal of this thesis is to take the first step in starting that research by providing a stable system that can provide a reliable platform for further research. This thesis introduces the fundamental hardware of Intel's IXP1200 and what it takes to install both hardware and software using both Windows 2000 and Linux 7.2 as the operating system in support for the IXP1200. This thesis will provide information on the installation of hardware and software configuration for the IXP1200 including Intel's Software Development Kit (SDK). Upon completion this platform can then be used to conduct further research in the development of the IXP1200 network processor. It provides a hardware and software installation checklist and documentations of problems encountered and recommendations for their resolution. Along with providing an example of using preexisting code that has been modified to filter packets of TCP or UDP to different ports.

Water is a prerequisite for life on our planet. Due to climate change and pollution, water availability for agricultural production, industry and households is increasingly put at risk. With agriculture being the largest water user as well as polluter worldwide, we estimate anthropogenic nitrogen and phosphorus emissions to fresh water related to global crop production at a spatial resolution level of 5 by 5 arc min and calculate the grey water footprints (GWF) related to EU-27's crop production. A multiregional input-output model is used to trace the the GWF embodied in the final consumption of crop products by the EU-27. The total GWF related to crop production in the EU-27 in 2007 was 1 × 1012 m3/year. Spain contributed about 40% to this total. Production of cereals (wheat, rice and other cereals) take the largest share, accounting for 30% of the GWF, followed by fruits (17%), vegetables (14%), and oil crops (13%). The total agricultural GWF of the EU-27 related to crop consumption was 1830 billion m3/year, which is 3700 m3/year per capita on average. Overall, the EU-27 was able to externalize about 41% of the GWF to the rest of the world through imports of crop products.