Effects Of Technological Improvements Research Articles

E-28 | Temporal Trends in Radiation and Contrast Dose After the Introduction of New X-Ray Systems

The effect of technological improvements on radiation dose and contrast volume during cardiac catheterization has received limited study. We compared the cumulative air kerma, fluoroscopy time, and contrast dose before and after installation of new X-ray systems in 14,051 procedures performed between 2018 and 2021 at a tertiary US center. Cumulative air kerma (AK) increased after new X-ray system installation by 94 mGy (95% CI [55, 133], p < 0.001). After adjusting for baseline characteristics, (age, body mass index, bifurcation lesion, complexity) the estimated increase was 61 mGy (30, 92), p < 0.001. Adjusting for fluoroscopy time, the estimated increase was 45 mGy (24, 66), p < 0.001. The estimated increase compared with 2018 was 40 mGy (11, 69), p = 0.007. Fluoroscopy time also by 1.0 min (95% CI 0.54, 1.5, p < 0.001). Adjusting for baseline characteristics, the estimated increase was 0.54 (95% CI 0.15, 0.93, p = 0.006). Fluoroscopy time was similar between 2018 and 2021 (0.07 min, 95% CI -0.44, 0.58, p = 0.8). Contrast volume was similar in the pre and post group (difference 0.00 mL, 95% CI -3.2, 3.2, p > 0.9). After adjusting for baseline characteristics, contrast volume did not significantly decrease (mean difference 2.9 mL, 95% CI-0.07, 5.9, p = 0.056). Fluoroscopy time and radiation dose increased from 2018-2021 after the introduction of new technologies. More research is needed to understand the underlying reasons and improve radiation safety in the cardiac catheterization laboratory.

Environmental Effects of Technological Improvements in Polysilicon Photovoltaic Systems in China—A Life Cycle Assessment

Due to increasing pollution and the overexploitation of traditional energy, there is both an environmental and a resource threat to sustainable development. China’s government prioritizes the optimization of resource structures with photovoltaic industrial support policies to address the potential hazards of traditionally highly polluting energy resources. However, applying green energy resources is not a panacea for solving existing industrial pollution as environmental problems cannot be solved with the level of optimized energy types. Instead, it is necessary to further explore the potential carbon emissions from clean energy resources. Therefore, we construct a polysilicon PV system’s whole life cycle carbon emission model by applying the LCA method and further building the emission coefficient model. More specifically, we divided the system’s carbon emissions into six components and calculated each part separately. In addition, we further applied the case analysis method. We analyzed the carbon emissions of the 280 MW solar cell production project of a leading global PV module company in China. The research results indicated that polysilicon companies should proactively develop advanced production technologies to upgrade energy-saving and environmental safety measures to reduce resource and energy consumption from raw materials in the final disposal process.

The effects of technological improvements in the train network on tourism sustainability. An approach focused on seasonality

This paper analyzes the effect that the creation of the Spanish high-speed railway network has had on tourist competitiveness. The Spanish high-speed train system is one of the most technologically advanced in the world. Little research has been conducted as to the effect of transportation infrastructures on the reduction of tourism seasonality in this type of destinations and the increase of arrivals. By analysing the results of the Gini Index applied to the monthly arrivals of national travellers, it can be seen that the initial evidence pointing to a low effect on the reduction of seasonality levels changes with the expansion and consolidation of the network. Evidence has been found indicating that a minimum number of connected cities is necessary for the benefits of the high-speed network to be truly significant on tourism in terms of increased arrivals and reduced seasonality.

Addressing the Role of Landraces in the Sustainability of Mediterranean Agroecosystems

Wheat yields are predicted to decrease over the next decades due to climate change (CC). Mediterranean regions are characterized by low soil fertility and stressful conditions that limit the effect of technological improvements on increasing yield gains, while worsening the negative CC impacts. Additionally, organic farming (OF) lacks specifically adapted genetic material. Accordingly, there is a need to search for varieties adapted to these conditions and whose cultivation may help semi-arid agroecosystems sustainability, focusing on specific agronomic and functional traits. To this purpose, wheat landraces and modern wheat varieties were evaluated under Mediterranean rainfed conditions during three growing seasons under contrasting situations: A conventional farm and an organic farm. Results regarding straw production, weed biomass and biodiversity, and grain N concentration suggest that the cultivation of landraces under Mediterranean rainfed conditions can enhance agroecosystem sustainability through positive effects on ecosystem services such as soil quality, functional biodiversity, or grain protein content, without significant reductions in grain yield. Results highlight the relevant role of wheat landraces as genetic resources for the development of cultivars adapted to Mediterranean agroecosystems conditions, especially for organic farming, but also for conventional agriculture.

Environmental Impacts of Photovoltaics: The Effects of Technological Improvements and Transfer of Manufacturing from Europe to China

AbstractSolar power deployment is expanding rapidly alongside improvements in manufacturing processes and solar technology performance. This expansion has coincided with great cost reductions and a shift in manufacturing to China, but the environmental effects of these developments remain unclear. This study uses life cycle assessment (LCA) to estimate the environmental impacts for silicon‐based photovoltaic (PV) systems installed in two locations—the United Kingdom (UK) and Spain—in the years 2005 and 2015 to assess the changes that have occurred in the past decade. Manufacturing is considered in both Europe and China to analyze the effects of the aforementioned market shift. The results show that technological improvements have reduced the environmental impacts by an average of 45 %, ranging from 29 % (eutrophication) to 80 % (ozone layer depletion); the carbon footprint has been approximately cut in half. However, the shift of manufacturing to China has increased environmental impacts by an average of 9–13 % relative to manufacturing in Europe. Acidification is much higher for Chinese‐made systems, negating all of the technological progress that has been made over the past decade. Thus, the future impacts of PV are highly dependent upon environmental improvements in the Chinese energy mix. Learning rates for environmental impacts are estimated at 6–26 %, thereby leading to expected impact reductions of 8–34 % by the year 2025, which would bring the impacts of Chinese‐made PV systems back down to the levels currently achieved by systems made in Europe.

Waste performance, waste technology and policy effects

Exploiting a balanced panel data set for 103 Italian provinces over the year 1999–2010, we study the effect of technological improvements, environmental policy and their interactions on waste management performance. The results point to the existence of both complementarity and substitution effects between green technological change and environmental policies. Moreover, we extend the baseline analysis to study whether knowledge spillovers play a role in affecting waste management options such as recycling, incineration and landfilling. To account for technological spillovers, we constructed an indicator that sums the patent stock of neighbouring provinces. The evidence suggests that knowledge stock has a positive impact on recycling and knowledge spillovers influence both recycling and incineration.

Effects of Technological Improvement in the ICT-Producing Sector on Business Activity

It seems to be taken for granted by many commentators that the sharp decline in prices of computers, telecommunications equipment and software resulting from the technological improvements in the information and communications technology (ICT)-producing sector is good for jobs and is a major driving force behind the non-inflationary employment miracle and booming stock market in the latter half of the nineties in the U.S. and their recurrence since 2004. We show that, in our model, a technical improvement in the ICT-producing sector by itself cannot explain a simultaneous increase in employment and a rise in firms valuation (or Tobins Q ratio). There are two cases. If the elasticity of equipment price (pI ) with respect to ICT-producing sectors productivity is less than one, labors value marginal productivity increases thus pulling up the demand wage and expanding employment. However, the increased output by adding to the capital stock and thus driving down future capital rentals causes a decline in firms valuation, q per unit, even though Tobins Q (= q=pI ) is up. If the elasticity is greater than one, equipment prices fall so dramatically that labors value marginal productivity declines, employment in the ICT-using sector expands proportionately more than the increase in capital stock, thus raising future capital rentals, so both firms valuation and Tobins Q rise; but then real demand wage falls and employment contracts. The key to generating a booming stock market alongside employment expansion is to hypothesize that when technical improvement in the ICT-producing sector occurs, the market forms an expectation of future productivity gains to be reaped in the ICT-using sector. Then we can explain not only the stock market boom and associated rise in investment spending and employment in the period 1995-2000 but also the subsequent decline in employment, in Tobins Q and in investment spending in 2001, with consumption holding up well as productivity gains in the ICT-using sector were realized. An anticipation of a future TFP improvement in the ICT-using sector can once more play the role of raising the stock market.

The Welfare of Nations in a Globalized Economy

Is free trade always good for advanced industrialized countries? Are fears of globalization and outsourcing imaginary, totally unfounded, and misguided? Is the West always going to benefit from technological improvements in the East? This article constructs a few thought experiments to analyze such issues. The article provides some rational insight into the puzzle of why global trade is so controversial. The effects of technological improvements in the East on the welfare of both the East and the West are analyzed. The conclusion highlights some of the less desirable effects of outsourcing in a more globalized world.

Improvements and problems of Bridgman–Stockbarger method for fabrication of TlBr single crystal detectors

TlBr is a promising material for gamma-ray detectors; however, it has crystal quality problems originated from the crystal growth itself and further treatments during detector fabrication. The effect of technological improvements on crystal quality has been studied in this work. Low performance of studied detectors was shown to be associated with residual stress or/and small-angle grain boundaries in these crystals. Several crystals failed as detectors were proved to contain impurities.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF GREENHOUSE TOMATO PRODUCTION STRATEGIES USING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT APPROACH

In Colombia, greenhouse tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) production has been increasing during the last years. Greenhouse production has caused landscape changes, ecosystem flux variations and risings on energy inputs and residue generation. The aim of this work was to quantify the relative intensity of energy demand, resources consumption and pollutants emissions to air, soil and water as a consequence of the implementation of technological alternatives for greenhouse tomato production. Life cycle assessment (LCA) approach was applied to determine the environmental sustainability of tomato production chain. Three strategies were evaluated: soil production system under single layer plastic greenhouse (SSP), substrate production system under double layer plastic greenhouse (HDP) and HDP including heating (HDPH). The Tomgro model was used to determine biomass production for each crop cycle under the three strategies. Potential impact of infrastructure and its contribution to environmental loads were determined especially for categories: climate change, eutrophication and marine aquatic ecotoxicity. LCA results showed the lowest energy consumption for SSP strategy, followed by HDP, while HDPH registered the highest energy demands. The major impact of greenhouse tomato production on the aforementioned categories is related to leaching for SSP and HDP, while, for HDPH, fuel consumption causes the highest environmental impact. Biodegradable residues are of major importance since they lower the impacts for all categories. Water pollution and eutrophication are affected by high nutrient emissions. LCA approach and the use of simulation models allowed assessing the environmental impact of production strategies and possible effects of technological improvements on commercial production systems.

Hicks theorem: Effects of technological improvement in the Ricardian model

Using the Ricardian model, we formally prove Hicks' [Hicks, John (1953), “An Inaugural Lecture,” Oxford Economic Papers 5(2), 117–135.] insight into the effects of technological improvement: uniform technological improvement at home benefits all countries (or at least does not hurt); export-biased technological improvement at home benefits the foreign country (or at least does not hurt), but import-biased technological improvement at home can hurt the foreign country as long as the comparative advantage is not reversed. We then study optimal strategies of technological improvement and show that for a small country it is optimal to choose export-biased technological improvement. For a large country, it is optimal to improve technology in both sectors at a rate proportional to the consumers' expenditure share. Therefore, if the expenditure share of the import sector is larger than that of the export sector, a large country will choose a relatively import-biased technological improvement, which will hurt its trading partner.

Angioscopy: New Developments in Vascular Surgery

Angioscopy is not a new procedure, but it is one that has undergone recent changes as the effects of technological improvement are adapted to the surgical environment. Recent advances allow the use of angioscopy to change the way some surgeries are performed and has altered others to a great degree. If the procedure is done infrequently, it can take several months and more than a few cases to master the procedure and setup. Having a small team of six vascular nurses for four full-time vascular surgeons has helped speed this process in our institution. In some institutions, the role of the nurse described in this article is performed by the surgical resident or fellow. As we gained experience, breakdown time was reduced and setup was more efficient.

The Optimal Acquisition of Automation to Enhance the Productivity of Labor

Decisions concerning the mix of automation and labor employed by an organization are embedded in the long-term strategic plan since the composition of productive capacity impacts on an organization's ability to survive and compete. In this paper, the optimal mix of automation and labor is identified for automation which acts to enhance the productivity of an organization's workforce. The incentives considered for acquiring automation are increasing the level of output, reducing the high cost of labor, and compensating for a limited supply of labor. Factors explicitly examined by the model include the future long-term goal level of output, costs associated with maintaining the workforce (wages) and automation, and costs associated with changing the levels of workforce and automation. Since the formulation is dynamic so that all exogenous and decision variables may be expressed as functions of time, the effects of technological improvement, increasing wage rates, changing labor supply, and diminishing returns as additional automation is acquired are considered.

U.S. Crude Oil Producing Capacity A Measure of Industry Efficiency

Abstract Estimates of U. S. crude oil producing capacity have been made routinely since the close of World War II. These estimates are based upon a determination of the physical capability of the domestic petroleum industry to produce crude oil at the maximum efficient rate from existing wells and reservoirs. Productive capacity estimates of potential crude oil producing ability do not make allowance for physical limitations on crude production resulting from storage and transportation bottlenecks, refining ability, etc. They are in tended only to indicate the maximum efficient level of production that could be obtained from existing crude oil wells and reservoirs. As estimates, they provide a means for evaluating industry oil recovery efficiency and determining the overall improvements that have resulted from advances in technology. The oil industry, in setting long-range planning goals and objectives, must take into consideration the results of technological improvements to properly evaluate its ability to meet the nation's energy requirements for petroleum. A review of productive capacity estimates related to API proven reserves offers the best method of evaluating the overall contributions that have been made in the past, and furnishes a guide to expected future increases as well. Introduction Evaluation of the effects of technological improvement is necessary to petroleum resources planning. In view of the current speculation on the adequacy of future U. S. reserves of crude oil to support the levels of production required to meet increasing demands, this becomes even more important. Crude petroleum production efficiencies resulting from improved production practices and methods tend to be cumulative. Industry acceptance of new methods and processes usually results in widespread use and application. For example, the development and utilization of formation fracturing techniques has gained full acceptance by the industry and its use will continue to be a factor in future productivity increases. This cumulative or multiplier effect requires that past increases in productivity be reviewed to determine anticipated future increases in efficiency. Crude oil production and recovery efficiency results from the combined efforts of all segments of our industry. Some of the major contributions that have been made in the recent past are: improved finding methods including better geological and geophysical interpretations; better drilling equipment, drilling muds, bits, etc. have resulted in faster penetration rates and completion of wells; completion methods have improved tremendously as a result of modern cements, better perforating equipment, and multiple completion techniques; well stimulation methods have also improved to the point where chemical treatment and fracturing techniques are able to coax production from hitherto non-commercial formations; new and improved secondary recovery methods that increase ultimate recoveries; and more efficient gathering and storage facilities are being installed with attendant reduction in storage losses. While it might appear at first glance that certain of these items appear to be unrelated to the recovery process, the direct and/or indirect contribution from all of them results in an over-all ability to recover more oil from petroleum reservoirs. Furthermore, the ability to produce this oil has increased at a faster rate, with a consequent greater increase in productive capacity, than growth in proven reserves. Although it is possible to evaluate some of the major contributive elements to production efficiency on a separate basis, it would be next to impossible to analyze all of them. Statistics simply do not exist. Therefore, we need a method of determining the cumulative effect of all of the contributions expressed in terms of production rate or recovery. Productive capacity estimates of U. S. crude oil producing ability related to proved reserves of crude oil offers an effective measure of total efficiency increases. Furthermore, these are consistent and reliable data which will be available on a continuing basis. Productive Capacity Estimates Generally there are three varying rates of production which are to be considered in any evaluation of crude oil producing capacity. These rates are maximum capacity, MER capacity and curtailed capacity. JPT P. 392ˆ

Capacity Expansion with Facilities Under Technological Improvement

Practically all existing analyses covering the obsolescence or the improvement of productive facilities are concerned with equipment replacement. An extension of such considerations to general capital investment analysis would seem to be a natural development. The present analysis is related to an investment decision on the expansion of productive capacity in discrete steps with facilities which undergo technological improvement. First, the analysis for expansion in one step is developed after the effects of technological improvement on the price and operating cost of a future facility have been introduced. The discussion of one-step expansion is then extended to an N-step expansion. In both types of expansion, the necessary conditions for optimum values of investment decision variables are obtained in order to maximize the present value of the net profit over the planning period.