Determination of the price for a hydro resource with consideration of operating conditions of hydropower plants using complex criteria of profit maxmization

<span>In this paper, a universal method has been developed to determine the price of a hydro resource (one cubic meter) for the operational regulation of a hydropower plant (HPP), which is a combination of an optimization method and a method for assessing the marginal utility. The proposed approach is based on the correct representation of differential incremental rate characteristics of water at an HPP and fuel at a thermal power plant (TPP). To know the price of a hydro resource used for electricity generation at a hydropower plant. This gives the possibility to increase the efficiency of management both at a hydropower plant, and in a water utilization system as a whole. Using the examples of Novosibirsk HPP, it is expected to develop an estimation of economic effect from the implementation of the developed criteria, the proposed method of the calculation of a hydro resource price at HPP, and the method of separating fuel costs at CHPP. As a result of the implementation the developed method for the HPP, a price of electricity sold in the flexible energy market will be compared to the price of the electricity produced and sold at CHPP, being equal to approximately 330 rubles/MW h.</span>

Asset pricing from the fundamentals

Το πόρισμα της διατριβής είναι μία πρωτότυπη ερμηνεία των οικονομικών κρίσεων. Σύμφωνα με αυτή η κατάρρευση των χρηματιστηρίων και των χρηματοπιστωτικών αγορών δεν είναι η αιτία αλλά ο μηχανισμός πυροδότησης των κρίσεων. Είναι ένα συμπέρασμα που εξηγεί σημαντικές πλευρές της κρίσης που ξεκίνησε το 2008 αλλά και τη χρησιμότητα και τα όρια των πολιτικών ρύθμισης των χρηματαγορών. Για να φτάσει σε αυτό το συμπέρασμα η διατριβή ξεκινά με την κριτική επισκόπηση της σύγχρονης "ορθόδοξης" θεωρίας της χρηματοοικονομικής σφαίρας. Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο επισημαίνει τα αναλυτικά προβλήματα της θεωρίας. Τα τελευταία εξηγούν την αδυναμία της να εξηγήσει εμπειρικά τα χρηματοοικονομικά φαινόμενα και ιδιαίτερα την αποτίμηση κεφαλαιακών τίτλων. Σημαντικοί ορθόδοξοι οικονομολόγοι όπως ο Robert Shiller και ο Edward Prescott έχουν επισημάνει τις αδυναμίες αυτές οδηγώντας στην εγκατάλειψη από το επάγγελμα της "υπόθεσης των αποτελεσματικών αγορών". Αλλά και οι προσεγγίσεις που ακολούθησαν τις "αποτελεσματικές αγορές" από τη σκοπιά της νεοκλασικής θεωρίας (behavioural finance, υπόδειγμα των "τριών παραγόντων", ορθολογικές φούσκες, αποκλίσεις ατομικού και συλλογικού συμφέροντος, θεωρίες συλλογικής δράσης και χρηματοπιστωτικού πανικού και, market frictions με χαρακτηριστικότερες τις θεωρίες ασύμμετρης πληροφόρησης) περισσότερο ασχολούνται με το γιατί αποτυγχάνει η θεωρία στην αρχική της μορφή παρά με τη διατύπωση μιας αξιόπιστης θεωρίας αποτίμησης κεφλαιακών τίτλων. Η διατριβή προτείνει μια εναλλακτική θεωρία βασισμένη στην Πραγματική Οικονομική Ανάλυση (Real Economic Analysis), δηλ., στην κλασική πολιτική οικονομία και στην μαρξιστική θεωρία, και ιδιαίτερα στο έργο του καθηγητή Anwar Shaikh. Η θεωρία αυτή εστιάζει στον ρόλο του ποσοστού κέρδους στις νέες επενδύσεις, στην ορολογία της θεωρίας "incremental rate of profit", ως βασικής ερμηνευτικής μεταβλητής των χρηματοοικονομικών φαινομένων. Αυτό σημαίνει ότι οι αποδόσεις των χρηματοπιστωτικών τίτλων τείνουν να εξισωθούν με εκείνες τις "πραγματικής οικονομίας" μέσω της κινητικότητας κεφαλαίου ανάμεσα στον παραγωγικό και χρηματοπιστωτικό τομέα. Η διατριβή επεκτείνει, και εν μέρει διαφοροποιεί τη θεωρία του καθηγητή Anwar Shaikh και την διερευνά εμπειρικά επεκτείνοντας την χρονική περίοδο ελέγχου μέχρι το 2020. Για την εμπειρική διερεύνηση εισάγει νέες μεθόδους δανεισμένες από τη φυσική και ειδικότερα τη θεωρία της "εντροπίας μεταφοράς" (transfer entropy). Αυτές οι μέθοδοι μπορεί να χρησιμεύσουν και για μελλοντική έρευνα.

A Time-Varying Gain Design Method for State Feedback Control of Upper Triangular Nonlinear Systems

In this paper, a time-varying gain design method is used to investigate the state feedback control problem of upper triangular nonlinear systems. Firstly, the nonlinear term recognizes an incremental rate relying on the unknown constant and the function with respect to time. Then, a time-varying gain design method is utilized to construct a state feedback controller. With the help of a suitable coordinate transformation and a Lyapunov function, one obtains that all the signals of the closed-loop system converge to zero. Finally, two numerical examples are presented to display the effectiveness of the time-varying gain design method.

Studies on Crop Yields and Their Extreme Value Analysis over India

Trends of rice, wheat, maize, sorghum (jowar) and pearl millet (bazra) yields of India are studied in relation to water irrigation for the period 1951 to 2012. These crop yields have been subjected to correlation with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), obtained from NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) (for 1982 to 2000) and Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra (for 2001 to 2012) to understand the linear association among them. Crop products and food inadequacy in percentage along with the average food production rate, available from FAO have been used in the present study. The present study mainly focuses on the estimation of return values of crop yields for different periods using Gumbell Extreme Value analysis. The present study is very important in the context of increased global food demands by 2050 where in many studies report that food production to be doubled by the year 2050 to meet the demands of increasing population. The main results of the study are: (i) significant positive correlations between NDVI and the crop yields during the study period; (ii) rice, maize and jowar yields did not show the required incremental rate while wheat and bajra yields are able to meet the expectations by the 2050. More efforts require to an increase of additional ~8% in the rice yields as the present growth is only ~12% and ought to be enhanced to ~20%.

Comparative Assessment of Age, Growth and Food Habit of the Black-Chinned Tilapia, Sarotherodon melanotheron (Rüppell, 1852), from Closed and Open Lagoons, Ghana

The black-chinned tilapia Sarotherodon melanotheron is the most abundant fish species in the Nakwa (a closed lagoon) and Brenu (an open lagoon) in the Central region of Ghana. Aspects of the life history characteristics and the ecology of the fish populations in both lagoons were studied to assess the bio-ecological status of this important resource. The estimated von Bertalanffy growth parameters were L&infin; = 12.04 cm; K =2.76 year-1 for the Nakwa Lagoon samples and L&infin; = 13.44 cm; K = 3.27 years-1 for Brenu Lagoon samples. Daily otolith incremental rate ranged from 0.01-0.03mm per day and 0.01-0.02mm per day for Nakwa and Brenu lagoons respectively. Stomach content analysis of the fish samples revealed that the species are planktivorous and the range of food varied between the lagoons. Green algae was the most prevalent food item in the stomachs of the fish samples from Nakwa with frequency of 69% while diatoms (80.5%) were most prevalent phytoplanktonic food item in for the fish in Brenu lagoon. The results of this study of Sarotherodon melanotheron from the two lagoons and can be used to improve on management policies, maximize yield and to sustain the fishery resources.

Soil Physical Quality in Sugarcane Field Under Cover Crop and Different Soil Tillage Systems

Currently, the management practices employed in Brazilian sugarcane plantations have contribute to soil physical degradation and, few studies considering the effect of cover crop associated with conservationist soil tillage systems to control or even reverse this process. Therefore, with the aim to assess the impact of cover crop and tillage systems on the least limiting water range (LLWR) and the S index in two soils of different textures used for sugarcane production, a fieldwork was carried out in two sugarcane plantations in the state of S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil. The experimental design is a split-plot with four repetitions. The main factor consisted of soil cover vegetation: cover crop and fallow, and the second factor, the tillage system: minimum tillage and conventional tillage. The data of this study demonstrated that clayey and medium-textured soil are sensitive to the management systems used. The use of cover crop promoted an increase of LLWR (average incremental rate of 105% for clayey and 100% for medium-textured soil) and S index (average incremental rate of 16% for clayey and 10% for medium-textured soil). The maintenance of soil under fallow represented restrictive conditions for the growth/development of the plants due to the degradation of the soil structure. In addition, conservation management systems, such as minimum tillage, resulted in better soil physical quality when associated with cover crop. Finally, the clayey and medium-textured soil, show good S index during the first cycle of sugarcane cultivation.

It is Worth Pondering Whether a Carbon Tax is Suitable for China’s Agricultural-Related Sectors

Studying the characteristics, trends, and evolution of carbon emissions in agricultural related sectors is of great significance for rational formulation of carbon emission reduction policies. However, as an important carbon emission reduction policy, carbon tax has been controversial over whether or not it should be levied on China. Based on this consideration, this paper takes China’s agricultural related sectors as an example and analyzes the degree of carbon tax on macro-environment, macroeconomy, and agricultural sectors during the period 2020–2050 by constructing a 3EAD-CGE (economy-energy-environmental-agricultural-dynamics Computable General Equilibrium) model. The results show that: (1) carbon tax has a time effect, specifically, the short-term effect is better than the long-term. (2) If the incremental rate of carbon tax is carried out alone, it will exert a great influence on the macroeconomy as well as on most of the agricultural related sectors. (3) If a carbon tax is introduced at the same time as indirect taxes are cut (proportionally), the policy will exert a negative impact on agriculture-related sectors that are subsidized. However, the policy will have a positive impact on those nonsubsidized sectors. Finally, based on the results, we put forward some suggestions that are more suitable for the introduction of a carbon tax in China’s agricultural-related sectors.

Financial Feasibility Analysis of Small and Medium Business Development CV. XYZ in Madiun East Java

The agricultural sector is the leading sector of the Indonesian economy. Oyster mushrooms are one of the subsectors of agriculture. High opportunities for business sustainability and consumer demand make it necessary to analyze the financial viability of this venture. Financial feasibility analysis is required to assist CV. XYZ to see the feasibility of the development effort to be run. This research uses investment and production cost analysis method, cost of goods sold, Break Even Point (BEP), Net Present Value (NPV), Payback Period (PP), and Incremental Rate of Return and Ratio B/C. The result of the financial feasibility of CV. XYZ is BEP by selling product 50 baglog or Rp. 150,000 per production. NPV valued at Rp 253,181,432, Payback Period in year 1, IRR worth 40% and Ratio B/C 1.42 in the first year up to the fifth year. Keywords: Financial feasibility,business development, oyster mushrooms