Increase In Total Cost Research Articles

Optimal Design of the Cement, Fly Ash, and Slag Mixture in Ternary Blended Concrete Based on Gene Expression Programming and the Genetic Algorithm.

Concrete producers and construction companies are interested in improving the sustainability of concrete, including reducing its CO2 emissions and the costs of materials while maintaining its mechanical properties, workability, and durability. In this study, we propose a simple approach to the optimal design of the fly ash and slag mixture in blended concrete that considers the carbon pricing, material cost, strength, workability, and carbonation durability. Firstly, the carbon pricing and the material cost are calculated based on the concrete mixture and unit prices. The total cost equals the sum of the material cost and the carbon pricing, and is set as the optimization’s objective function. Secondly, 25 various mixtures are used as a database of optimization. The database covered a wide range of strengths between 25 MPa and 55 MPa and a wide range of workability between 5 and 25 cm in slump. Gene expression programming is used to predict the concrete’s strength and slump. The ternary blended concrete’s carbonation depth is calculated using the efficiency factors of fly ash and slag. Thirdly, the genetic algorithm is used to find the optimal mixture under various constraints. We provide examples to illustrate the design of ternary blended concrete with different strength levels and environmental CO2 concentrations. The results show that, for a suburban region, carbonation durability is the controlling factor in terms of the design of the mixture when the design strength is less than 40.49 MPa, and the compressive strength is the controlling factor in the design of the mixture when the design strength is greater than 40.49 MPa. For an urban region, the critical strength for distinguishing carbonation durability control and strength control is 45.93 MPa. The total cost, material cost, and carbon pricing increase as the concrete’s strength increases.

The Effects of Case Timing and Care Team Composition on Hospital Operating Room Costs for Endovascular Procedures

The contemporary healthcare environment is complex with mounting pressures to perform greater procedural volumes with less support staff to minimize costs and maximize efficiency. This report details an analysis of routine endovascular procedures performed with dedicated vascular support staff during daytime hours compared to similar cases performed after hours with general operating room staff. All lower extremity endovascular cases over a 37-month period were identified using Current Procedural Terminology codes from a query of our institutional database. Emergent/urgent cases and cases with associated open surgical procedures were excluded. Cases were divided according to the time of day and available clinical support structure according to procedure start time: specialty-specific daytime (SS) and general staff after hours for all others (AH). The resulting case list was examined by case type according to SS or AH designation and case types occurring disproportionately during either time frame were excluded to create a homogenous group of cases. Demographics, case specifics, and cost data were then obtained from the electronic health record and our enterprise cost data warehouse. Multivariable mixed linear modeling was used to examine component costs (i.e., anesthesia, supplies, etc.) and total costs controlling for a number of factors that could affect cost. Two hundred fifty-two routine endovascular-only procedures were examined in 232 patients (190 SS, 42 AH). No significant differences in procedure specifics were observed between the groups [number and location of access site(s), indication for procedure, type and number of interventions, etc.]. Multivariable analyses controlled for factors affecting costs. Costs associated with anesthesia (cost ratio 1.90, P=0.001), operating room time costs (cost ratio 1.29, P=0.03), and post anesthesia recovery (cost ratio 1.23, P=0.004) were all significantly increased in AH cases compared to SS cases. The average total hospital cost for routine endovascular cases that performed AH was $8,095 compared to $5,636 for SS cases (cost ratio 1.44, P=0.008). Performance of routine endovascular cases was associated with significantly less cost to the hospital system when performed by SS teams during regular hospital hours with a ∼30% increase in total cost associated with AH cases. In the current healthcare environment, investments in SS teams and process improvements are likely to be cost effective.

An integrated optimization model for natural gas supply chain

Natural gas is a green fossil fuel with the highest demand growth. Natural gas industry is composed of different sectors that form a complex and large supply chain. These sectors make their own decisions individually, resulting in implementation of non-optimal decisions. The aim of this study is to design and optimize an integrated natural gas supply chain (NGSC) formulated as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model. The model minimizes total cost and optimizes gas flow between supply chain nodes through pipelines, location-allocation of facilities and pipeline routes along with their capacities, number of pipelines, capacity expansion, extraction, production, storage, exports and imports. The proposed model is applied to a real world case study based on information derived from Iran's NGSC. Finally, the change effect of the most important parameters on the optimal solution is investigated and three actual scenarios are analyzed. The results indicate that the parameters of operating costs and demand volume have a significant effect on the optimal solution and the largest share of supply chain costs is related to operating expenditures. Moreover, the expansion of joint fields and zero import capacity will lead to a remarkable increase in total supply chain costs.

Within trial cost-utility analysis of disease management program for patients hospitalized with atrial fibrillation: results from the SAFETY trial

Background: The potential impact of disease management to optimize quality of care, health outcomes, and total healthcare costs across a range of cardiac disease states is unknown.Methods: A trial-based cost-utility analysis was conducted alongside a randomized controlled trial of 335 patients with chronic, non-valvular AF (without heart failure; the SAFETY Trial) discharged to home from three tertiary referral hospitals in Australia. A home-based disease management intervention (the SAFETY intervention) that involved community-based AF care including home visits was compared to routine primary healthcare and hospital outpatient follow-up (standard management). Bootstrapped incremental cost-utility ratios were computed based on quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and total healthcare costs. Cost-effectiveness acceptability curves were constructed to explore the probability of the SAFETY intervention being cost-effective. Sub-group analyses were performed based on age and sex to determine differential cost-effectiveness.Results: During median follow-up of 1.75 years, the SAFETY intervention was associated with a non-statistically significant increase in QALYs (0.02 per person) and lower total healthcare costs (–$4,375 per person). Although each of these findings were not statistically significant, the SAFETY intervention was found to be dominant (more effective and cost saving) in 58.8% of the bootstrapped iterations and cost-effective (more effective and gains in QALYs achieved at or below $50,000 per QALY gained) in 61.5% of the iterations. Males and those aged less than 78 years achieved greater gains in QALYs and savings in healthcare costs. The estimated value of perfect information in Australia (the monetized value of removing uncertainty in the cost-effectiveness results) was A$51 million, thus demonstrating the high potential gain from further research.Conclusions: Compared with standard management, the SAFETY intervention is potentially a dominant strategy for those with chronic, non-valvular AF. However, there would be substantial value in reducing the uncertainty in these estimates from further research.Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry identifier: ACTRN12610000221055.

ANALISIS USAHATANI BEBERAPA VARIETAS UNGGUL PADI SAWAH DI KABUPATEN LABUHANBATU

This study aims to determine the differences in production, revenue, income differences and the feasibility of Ciherang, Inpari 13 and Mekongga rice fields in the study area. To determine the feasibility of Ciherang, Inpari 13 and Mekongga varieties of rice farming, it is feasible from the comparison of revenue and costs in the study area. To find out the efficiency of Ciherang, Inpari 13 and Mekongga varieties in the study area. The average income of paddy farming received by respondent farmers in Labuhanbatu Regency for Ciherang variety is Rp. 14,416,111.11, - per Ha / MT. A Return Cost Ratio (R / C ratio) of 2.29 shows that R / C 1, then this farm is profitable. The biggest acceptance for lowland rice farming in Labuhanbatu Regency was Ciherang variety, followed by Inpari 13 variety, and the lowest acceptance was Mekongga Variety. The R / C ratio indicates that it is still feasible to be cultivated, but in terms of the BEP value of land use, the number shown 1, means that land tenure below 1 Ha will not be able to sustain farmers' income if there is a 10% increase in total production costs with the assumption of production and fixed price (no increase).

Optimization of a SAG Mill Energy System: Integrating Rock Hardness, Solar Irradiation, Climate Change, and Demand-Side Management

Integration of renewable energy into mining and processing operations is becoming necessary as part of a strategy towards sustainability in the minerals industry. A solar photovoltaic plant along with a battery energy storage system (PV-BESS) can provide a long-term solution to cope with increasing energy costs, thus reducing the tension with other societal competing needs for a key resource such as clean energy. However, sizing these systems is challenging, in face of uncertain ore grindability and solar power availability. In this paper, we present an application of an integrated model to size the PV-BESS, where the variability of ore grindability is modeled using geostatistical tools, solar irradiance variability is captured using a Markov chain simulation model, and the entire system is optimized through linear stochastic optimization, considering a fixed mine schedule for the feed of a semiautogenous grinding (SAG) mill. The main goals are to minimize the costs associated with operating the SAG mill in the presence of a PV-BESS system, understand how the sizing and costs change under the influence of stochastic drivers, and reveal the potential for demand-side management in mines. The size and costs of the necessary infrastructure are determined for a model of estimated grindability and an ensemble of 50 simulated models of grindability, and compared against the sizing and cost of the ground truth. The effect of climate change on solar energy availability is accounted for by forecasting the ratio of excellent, good, and moderate days over bad days in terms of irradiance out to the year 2030. Finally, the effects of stockpiles and feed control according to the processing plant needs, namely a demand-side management approach, are evaluated to reveal the impact on the energy requirements and the sizing of the photovoltaic and storage system. The model is optimized considering a yearly cost function, with hourly resolution for the solar irradiance and hardness models. The results show that integrating solar power into the operation of a SAG mill has potential to reduce the total energy cost by 27%. Robustness against climate change can be achievedwith an increase in total cost of 1%. Finally, use of stockpiles to manage the ore supply to the mill and minimize the energy cost to process it results in a cost reduction of around 2%, which should offset the rehandling cost of managing the stockpiles.

Multi-objective design optimization of combined cooling, heating and power system for cruise ship application

In recent years, the size (weight and volume) of cruise ships are experiencing spectacular increase, coherently with the increase in energy consumption and carbon emissions. However, the regulations about pollutant emissions imposed by the International Maritime Organization are becoming more and more strict. In order to face up to this issue, the energy system of cruise ships is constantly being modified. In this paper, the structure of the cruise ship's energy system with multiple facilities such as an internal combustion engine, gas turbine, dual fuel engine, PV panels, and the wind turbine is pre-established. Then, a multi-objective mathematical programming model is formulated to determine the selection and capacity of facilities with minimal total annual cost and size, while the emissions, energy balance and technical constraints are taken into account. By adopting the augmented ε-constraint method, the design and operation strategies could be obtained. As an illustrated example, the model is applied to a real cruise ship, and the Pareto frontier could provide ship designers with well-balanced solutions based on economic and size priorities, and with the increase in the proportion of size objective, the total annual cost increases and size decreases gradually. Compared with the reference energy system, the optimal energy system could reduce the total annual cost by 12.6% if only the economic objective is considered and reduce the size by 21.1% if only the size objective is considered. In multi-objective condition, the CO, NOx, and SOx emissions could be reduced by 29.1%–61.3%, 42.8%–61.3%, and 42.8%–61.3% per year, respectively. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis is conducted, and the result shows that the size and consumption cost of Marine Gas Oil (MGO) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) are more sensitive to the change of the proportion of size objective compared to Heavy fuel oil (HFO) and Marine diesel oil (MDO).

An optimization approach to planning rail hazmat shipments in the presence of random disruptions

Hazardous materials (hazmat) shipments are integral to the development of any industrial society, and railroad is one the primary transportation modes in North America. However, the current academic literature has not studied the impact of disruption on rail hazmat shipments. This study proposes a bi-objective two-stage stochastic program that makes use a of new measure of risk to plan rail shipments in the presence of random disruptions. Complexity of the resulting mathematical model motivated the development of an augmented ɛ-constraint solution technique, which was used to study the railroad infrastructure in Midwest United States. The resulting analyses throw light on the trade-off between hazmat risk versus cost, and suggest that deploying contingency plans for disruptions can significantly mitigate hazmat risks with only a slight increase in total cost. We also find that with less than 1% increase in the total cost, our model reduces the variability in risk by as much as 99% in our case study.

10-OR: Health-Care Costs and Utilization for Medicaid Patients with Diabetes in Accountable Care Communities (ACC)—A Natural Experiment for Translation in Diabetes (NEXT-D) 2 Study

Background: Diabetes costs account for 20% of all health care spending in the U.S. The Accountable Care Communities (ACC) Program was developed by a large U.S. insurer to provide practices with community data analytics for population management and nurses to support care improvement for Medicaid patients. We examined changes in costs and utilization for Medicaid patients with diabetes in ACC compared to non-ACC practices. Methods: We used interrupted time series (ITS) analysis of mean costs per person-month between 2009-2015. We used data from patients with diabetes in practices with >1000 Medicaid patients. ACC was implemented in 14 states and comparison non-ACC practices were matched on state to control for state-level variation in Medicaid generosity. Separate ITS models were used for costs, ER visits and hospitalizations adjusted for age, gender, race/ethnicity, seasonality, and state by year fixed effects. Results are presented as differences-in-post-intervention monthly changes-in-expenditures (DID) by Medicaid category (TANF, SSI, Expansion and Duals). Results: The sample included 899,273 ACC-person months from 54,721 Medicaid patients with diabetes. Over 29 months follow-up, ACC assignment was associated with significant increases in total costs at the time of implementation for all Medicaid patients except for those eligible for both Medicare/Medicaid (Duals); increases in total costs at implementation ranged from $65-143/person-month based on Medicaid category, p<0.05. There were no significant differences in ER use or hospitalizations over time for Medicaid patients with diabetes assigned to ACC practices. Conclusions: Medicaid patients in ACC practices had increases in costs but not utilization over 2 years follow-up, compared to patients in non-ACC practices. Our findings suggest that this ACC program may not reduce costs of care or utilization for Medicaid patients with diabetes. Disclosure T. Moin: None. O. Duru: Advisory Panel; Self; Healthwise. C. Mangione: None. Funding Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Institutes of Health (U18DP006128)

A comparison of adherence, outcomes, and costs among opioid use disorder Medicaid patients treated with buprenorphine and methadone: A view from the payer perspective

Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) with methadone or buprenorphine has been shown to be more effective at reducing the use of illicit opioids, the risk of drug-related overdose, and overall healthcare costs, on average, compared to abstinence-based addiction treatments for individuals with an opioid use disorder (OUD). Individuals who are adherent to MAT are more likely to experience positive outcomes.We used physical and behavioral Medicaid claims data of individuals newly treated with methadone (n = 212) and buprenorphine (n = 972) to examine the overall predictors of adherence, differences in adherence to each medication, the relationship between adherence and ED nonfatal drug-related overdose, and differences in total cost of care between the two medications.We found that older individuals and women had significantly lower risk of non-adherence. At six months, only 3.6% of individuals who were adherent to either treatment experienced a nonfatal drug-related overdose in the ED, compared to 13.2% of individuals who were non-adherent. We found no significant difference between methadone and buprenorphine on nonfatal drug-related overdose. Non-adherence to methadone was associated with a significant increase in total cost of care. Implications for how these results could be used to improve the overall impact of MAT are discussed.

An integrated production scheduling and delivery route planning with multi-purpose machines: A case study from a furniture manufacturing company

Recently, many modern industries have adopted joint scheduling of production and distribution decisions. Such coordination is necessary in make-to-order (MTO) businesses, where it is challenging to achieve timely delivery at minimum total cost and meet the requirements for high customization. To deal with these challenges, a practical production configuration and delivery method is required, in addition to a closer link between production and distribution schedules. Hence, in this study, we address an integrated production scheduling-vehicle routing problem with a time window, where it is assumed that production is performed in a flexible job-shop system. Our framework is modeled as a novel bi-objective mixed integer problem, in which the first objective function aims to minimize a sum of the production and distribution scheduling costs, and the second objective function tries to minimize a weighted sum of delivery earliness and tardiness. To practically validate the application of our framework, a case study from a furniture manufacturing company producing customized goods is considered, and experimental data are derived. Based on the real data, the model is first optimally solved by an ε−constraint method, and then a Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization (HPSO) algorithm is developed to solve the model for medium- and large-sized problems in a reasonable time. We discuss the benefits of integration by comparing the results of the proposed model with that of the separate approach. The results show that the company can establish a proper rational balance between cost and customer concerns, and they can use the integration policy as a lever to improve customer satisfaction without the system experiencing a significant increase in total operational cost.

Optimal Design for Pressurized Irrigation Subunits with a Minimum Cost and Maximum Area for Uniformly Sloping Fields

The optimal design for pressurized irrigation subunits is a complicated problem that not only requires a confirmation of the layout but also requires a pipe diameter combination. Using a subunit with single lateral and a subunit with paired laterals as research objects, four mathematical optimization models were established to identify the optimal microirrigation subunit design. The optimization criteria were minimizing the annual total cost (CT) and maximizing the subunit size (A); it was assumed that all the emitters have equal discharge, and only rectangular subunits were considered in this study. No allowable pressure differences allocation between the lateral and the manifold were made in this study, considering that there are many factors that affect the distribution ratio and the overall optimization of the subunit. A genetic algorithm was used to obtain the optimal design when simultaneously considering the layout and pipe diameters of the subunit. The results indicated that the investment cost (Ca) is the most important factor, and it makes up 43–66% of the CT, followed by the water cost (Cw), which accounts for 28–49% of the CT. A subunit with paired laterals is superior to a subunit with single lateral in terms of both the total cost and the control area. On the whole, with the increase in the lateral diameter, both the total cost and the control area will increase. With an increase in the emitter discharge, the total cost increases, while the control area decreases. The change of slope in the lateral direction has little effect on the total cost and control area. The method proposed in this study is applicable to the simultaneous optimization of the subunit in which the layout and area are undetermined, and it may provide a new path towards subunit optimization.

Vertigo and dizziness cause considerable more health care resource use and costs: results from the KORA FF4 study.

Vertigo is a common reason for primary care consultations, and its diagnosis and treatment consume considerable medical resources. However, limited information on the specific cost of vertigo is currently available. The aim of this study is to analyse the health care costs of vertigo and examine which individual characteristics would affect these costs. We used cross-sectional data from the German KORA ("Cooperative Health Research in the Augsburg Region") FF4 study in 2013. Impact of personal characteristics and other factors was modelled using a two-part model. Information on health care utilisation was collected by self-report. We included 2277 participants with a mean age of 60.8 (SD = 12.4), 48.4% male. Moderate or severe vertigo was reported by 570 (25.0%) participants. People with vertigo spent 818 Euro more than people without vertigo in the last 12months (2720.9Euro to 1902.9Euro, SD = 4873.3 and 5944.1, respectively). Consultation costs at primary care physicians accounted for the largest increase in total health care costs with 177.2Euro (p < 0.01). After adjusting for covariates, the presence of vertigo increased both the probability of having any health care costs (OR = 1.6, 95% CI =[1.2;2.4]) and the amount of costs (exp(β) = 1.3, 95% CI = [1.1;1.5]). The analysis of determinants of vertigo showed that private insurance and a medium level of education decreased the probability of any costs, while higher income increased it. The presence of vertigo and dizziness required considerable health care resources and created significantly more related costs in different health care sectors for both primary and pertinent secondary care.

Antibiotic Susceptibility Profile of Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Clinical Samples in Nasarawa Town, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Multidrug resistant strain of S. aureus is the most common cause of life-threatening hospital- and community-acquired infections. Multidrug resistant S. aureus infections contribute to patients’ prolonged stay in the hospital, increase in total healthcare costs, morbidity, and mortality. This work was aimed at determining the occurrence and antibiotic susceptibility profile of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from some clinical samples (blood and urine) in General Hospital, Nasarawa, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. All the 14 samples (7 each for blood and urine) collected in this study yielded positive for S. aureus, which were identified by cultural appearances and confirmed using conventional biochemical tests.The antibiotic susceptibility profile of the isolates indicated that, majority of them exhibited high susceptibility to gentamycin (85.7%), ciprofloxacin (78.6%), vancomycin (71.4%), chloramphenicol (64.3%), teicoplanin (50.0%), and erythromycin (42.9%). All the 14 (100%) isolates tested showed resistance to oxacillin, amoxicillin (85.7%), and cefoxitin (78.6%).

PCV45 ESTIMATE OF THE IMPACT AND COSTS OF CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE FROM AN HEALTH PLAN IN BRAZIL: REAL WORLD SCENARIO STUDY

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is an important medical, social and economical problem worldwide, and is associated to hard outcomes, such as death and hospitalization. This study analyzes economic impact in a health plan. Observational case-control study involving 71,094 individuals attended by the health plan. From these, we selected a sample of 396 individuals diagnosed with CHF and, for each case, three controls with the same age and sex. We analyze the frequency of use of health services during 12 months (visits, tests, treatments, hospitalizations and readmission) by sex and age. The annual costs of health care were compared with the costs of individuals who were not diagnosed with CHF (ICD10-I50). Statistical analysis used OpenEpi software, by calculating the relative and absolute frequencies, means and standard deviation. For statistical significance, Chi-square tests (Mantel-Haenszel and Fisher's Exact), when p<0.001. Of the selected sample diagnosed with CHF, 54.3% were male, with a mean age of 72.8 years and 45.7% female, mean age 72.7 years. In this group, the utilization of health plan was significantly higher than individuals without CHF for tests (p<0.001, OR 1.64), hospitalizations (p<0.001; OR 6.72), readmission in less than 12 months (p<0.001; OR 6.59), long-term hospitalization (>30 days) (p<0.001; OR 6.54) and not significant in visits (p=0.163) and therapies (p=0.378). The annual expenditure was US$ 3,432.27 versus US$ 1,608.90 by patients who haven't CHF (213.3% more). Considering the estimated prevalence and the incremental cost, the annual impact of disease for the health plan was US$ 6,714,872.34. As observed, the utilization of inpatient medical services from individuals with CHF was significant higher than group control, which represents more than 200% increase in total costs generated due to this component.

PNS88 IMPACT OF PATIENT-TARGETED FINANCIAL INCENTIVES ON HEALTHCARE COSTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS

Patient-targeted financial incentives have the potential to be used as policy instruments to improve health and healthcare use efficiency. Prominent examples of health policy trials are the RAND and Oregon Health Insurance Experiments. The objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive assessment of the impact of financial incentives on healthcare costs through a systematic review of published health policy trials. We searched electronic databases (Medline, Embase, Econlit, and The Cochrane Library), clinical trial registries, and websites of health economic organisations to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in which the intervention was a patient-targeted financial incentive and healthcare costs were included as an outcome. Two reviewers independently reviewed titles, abstracts and full texts to assess study eligibility using a piloted form. Due to heterogeneity between studies, results were synthesized qualitatively. A total of 15,845 records were retrieved through the literature searches, of which 25 articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria, describing 15 RCTs. Ten RCTs were conducted in the United States and one each in Ghana, Nicaragua, India, Burkina Faso, and Mexico. The interventions included increased health insurance coverage (n=13, 86.7%) and voucher or cash-back programs (n=2, 13.3%). Of the 17 articles that measured costs from the perspective of healthcare payers, 10 (58.8%) found no difference and 4 (23.5%) a significant increase in total healthcare costs. When evaluating specific cost components (e.g. ambulatory or preventative care), 9 articles (52.9%) found an increase in healthcare costs associated with the intervention. Of the 10 articles that measured the costs to patients, 6 (60.0%) found a significant decrease and 4 (40.0%) no difference in out-of-pocket costs (note: two articles included both perspectives). Patient-targeted financial incentives decreased or had no impact on the cost to patients. This type of policy intervention might increase specific resource use but not the total costs to healthcare payers.

Retailer order commitments improve distribution supply chain performance

Manufacturing, retail, and healthcare organizations are improving their distribution supply chains by implementing order commitment – an agreement under which some delivery quantities are fixed a priori while some others are freely chosen by the recipients. We show that these strategies are effective whenever the supplier’s cost is at least 29.3% of the total system cost. This result is robust to supply chain operating structure, and savings increase as the supplier’s share of the total system cost increases.

Towards a low CO2 emission building material employing bacterial metabolism (2/2): Prospects for global warming potential reduction in the concrete industry.

The production of concrete is one of the most significant contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. This work focuses on bio-cementation-based products and their potential to reduce global warming potential (GWP). In particular, we address a proposed bio-cementation method employing bacterial metabolism in a two-step process of limestone dissolution and recrystallisation (BioZEment). A scenario-based techno-economic analysis (TEA) is combined with a life cycle assessment (LCA), a market model and a literature review of consumers’ willingness to pay, to compute the expected reduction of global GWP. Based on the LCA, the GWP of 1 ton of BioZEment is found to be 70–83% lower than conventional concrete. In the TEA, three scenarios are investigated: brick, precast and onsite production. The results indicate that brick production may be the easiest way to implement the products, but that due to high cost, the impact on global GWP will be marginal. For precast production the expected 10% higher material cost of BioZEment only produces a marginal increase in total cost. Thus, precast production has the potential to reduce global GWP from concrete production by 0–20%. Significant technological hurdles remain before BioZEment-based products can be used in onsite construction scenarios, but in this scenario, the potential GWP reduction ranges from 1 to 26%. While the potential to reduce global GWP is substantial, significant efforts need to be made both in regard to public acceptance and production methods for this potential to be unlocked.

Кто заплатит за водопровод: социальный контекст восприятия дистрибутивной справедливости

Статья посвящена исследованию влияния социального контекста распределения издержек на обыденные нормативные суждения о дистрибутивной справедливости, выносящиеся с точки зрения арбитра. С помощью метода факторного опроса оценивалось влияние контекстуальной информации о родстве реципиентов издержек, формы предоставления информации об их текущем финансовом положении, а также величины совокупных издержек на восприятие дистрибутивной справедливости. Участники были более склонны распределять издержки, компенсируя положение тех, кто находится в наихудшем положении, за счет тех, кто находится в наилучшем положении, если реципиенты издержек являются родственниками, предоставляется информация о доходах, а не о долгах реципиентов, и величина совокупных издержек относительно невелика. Также был выявлен эффект взаимодействия между величиной совокупных издержек и двумя остальными факторами: увеличение суммы совокупных издержек снижает силу эффектов родства и формы предоставления информации о финансовом положении реципиентов и сильнее склоняет участников к восприятию эгалитарного распределения издержек в качестве справедливого. Результаты подтверждают предположение о контекстуальной природе дистрибутивной справедливости и углубляют понимание ее проявления в обыденных нормативных суждениях при распределении издержек, направленных на поддержание общественного блага.

Climate change in Africa: costs of mitigating heat stress

We applied two metrics, apparent temperature and humidex, to calculate heat stress in both present and future climates. We use an ensemble of CORDEX-Africa simulations to estimate heat stress during a baseline period and at two specific warming levels, 2 and 4 ∘C above pre-industrial. The increase in temperatures and changes to the precipitation distribution under climate change are projected to increase the intensity of heat stress events in Sahelian Africa and introduce new heat stress events in Northern and Central Africa. As the intensity of heat stress increases, it is expected that the use of energy-intensive cooling will increase. The energy system, therefore, will need to be able to supply more energy to power fans or air conditioning units. The cooling demand to turn a heat stress event into a non-heat stress event is computed. This value is then weighted by the population to find the total cooling required to prevent heat stress across the continent. Country-level results indicate that the greatest increases in cooling demand will occur in countries with densely populated regions, most notably Nigeria. Supplying this additional cooling demand will present the greatest challenge to less developed countries like Somalia. We find the least-cost future energy system that meets the projected increase in demand and derive the increase in energy system costs with the TIAM-UCL model. The total increase in energy costs to prevent heat stress is found to be $51bn by 2035 and $487bn by 2076.