Evaluation of Investments in Wind Energy Projects, under Uncertainty. State of the Art Review

The use of renewable energy sources, especially wind energy, has been widely developed, mostly during the last decade. The main objective of the present study is to conduct a literature review focused on the evaluation under uncertainty of wind energy investment using the real options approach to find out whether public opposition (NIMBY projects) has been contemplated, and if so, what have been the flexible strategies applied for its intervention. Overall, 97 publications were analyzed, identifying 20 different models or approaches, which were grouped into eight categories: 1. Real options, 2. Optimization, 3. Stochastics, 4. Financial evaluation, 5. Probabilistic, 6. Estimation, 7. Numerical prediction, and 8. Others. The real options approach, present in 32% of the studies, was the most popular. Twenty-eight types of uncertainties were identified, which were grouped, for better analysis, into nine categories. In total, 62.5% of the studies included the price of electricity as a source of uncertainty; 18.8%, the velocity of wind; and 15.6%, the feed-in rates-subsidy. Both random and non-random techniques were applied to assess the real options and to model the uncertainties. When evaluating real options, the Monte Carlo simulation technique was the most preferred, with 16 (51.6%) applications, followed by non-randomized techniques, decision tree, and dynamic programming, with eight (25.8%) applications each. There is a marked tendency to use stochastic processes to model uncertainty, particularly geometric Brownian motion, which was used in 61.3% (19) of the studies in the sample. When searching for “real options AND (nimby OR public opposition)”, no study was found, which shows the possibility of developing research on this aspect to determine its impact on investments in wind energy projects.

ANALISIS RETORIKA SEMITIK ALKITABIAH : Satu Upaya Hermeneutika Lintas Iman & Lintas Tekstual

Hermeneutical awareness in the biblical study is very important to underline in order to have a solid formation amidst the various approaches and methodological choices. This paper intends to present a method of interpretation which tends to be open and dialogical, which can be developed for studying other classical religious texts, perhaps even philosophical texts. The Rhetorical Analysis founded at Gregorian University at Rome, Italy, as a new method to understanding the bible can apparently be offered as a model of a cross-cultural hermeneutic that is across disciplines, and even inter-faiths. This rhetorical analysis is called “biblical” because it focuses on the specific characteristics of the biblical literary tradition itself. Rooted in Semitic culture, this tradition exhibits a marked tendency towards symmetrical and parallel compositions. This rhetorical method is called “semitic” to distinguish it from the classical one, which was developed in the Greco-Roman culture and which is often considered the only rhetoric in the world. The study of the various forms of parallelism and other rules that characterize the composition of the Semitic style helps us to determine the structure of the text more precisely, and thus of course leads to a more adequate understanding of the message it contains.

Translating additive connectors from English into Spanish and vice versa

This contrastive study aims to analyze and compare the usages of one type of sentence connectors, reinforcing additive connectors, in English and in Spanish through a corpus-based approach, which relies on bidirectional translation data. The analysis includes behavioral profiles of each of the list of connectors in each language, comparisons among them, comparisons between original texts and translated texts in both directions, cross-register differences, translational options, and the connectors’ mutual correspondence, which shows the degree of equivalence of each pair of connectors based on how often they are translated into each other. The results show important differences in the use of reinforcing additive connectors, mainly connected with (a) the more even distribution in English as compared with the great predominance of one connector in Spanish, además; (b) a more marked tendency for explicitation in Spanish and for the use of zero translation in English; (c) generally low mutual correspondence values, which seem to reflect high language variation, richness, and complex mapping of resources utilized to connect sentences.

Firn changes at Colle Gnifetti revealed with a high-resolution process-based physical model approach

Our changing climate is expected to affect ice core records as cold firn progressively transitions to a temperate state. Thus there is a need to improve understanding and further develop quantitative process modeling, to better predict cold firn evolution under a range of climate scenarios. Here we present the application of a distributed, fully coupled energy balance model, to simulate high-alpine cold firn at Colle Gnifetti over the period 2003–2018. For the first time, we force such a model with high-resolution, long-term and extensively quality-checked meteorological data measured in closest vicinity of the firn site, at the Capanna Margherita (4560 m a.s.l.). The model incorporates the spatial variability of snow accumulation rates, and is calibrated using several, partly unpublished high-altitude measurements from the Monte Rosa area. The simulation reveals a very good overall agreement in the comparison with a large archive of firn temperature profiles. The rate of firn warming at 20 m depth is estimated at 0.44 °C per decade. Our results show that surface melt over the glaciated saddle is increasing by 3–4 mm w.e. yr−2 depending on the location (29–36 % in 16 years), although with large inter-annual variability. Analysis of modeled melt indicates a marked tendency towards small melt events (

The interaction of drugs to treat cardiovascular diseases and testosterone therapy, their effects and characteristics

Testosterone is used in the treatment of primary or acquired hypogonadism, constitutional growth retardation, and delayed puberty in male patients. Today, there is a fact that cardiovascular diseases present a high frequency in males with a marked tendency to increase soon. Therefore, the number of men using drugs to treat cardiovascular diseases is increasing rapidly. Cardiovascular drugs, which are frequently used and/or recently introduced, may cause undesirable effects under the heading of drug-drug interaction with testosterone therapy. The number of male patients exposed to these agents may increase rapidly quite soon. In this paper, we reviewed the potential drug-drug interactions between drugs to treat cardiovascular diseases and testosterone treatment considering the pharmacokinetic parameters and experimental animal studies in the literature.

Pharmacoepidemiological analysis of the use of antimicrobial drugs for diseases of the lower respiratory tract in the pulmonary department of a multifield hospital of the Republic of Tajikistan

Aim. Assessment of the use of antimicrobial drugs (AD) in the pulmonary department of a multifield hospital (MH), the Republic of Tajikistan. Materials and methods. A retrospective analysis of medical prescriptions of patients who were treated in the pulmonary department of the Sughd Regional Clinical Hospital (city of Khojend, the Republic of Tajikistan) in 2011–2018 was carried out. The use of AD was evaluated in total, by groups in accordance with the WHO ATC/DDD index: penicillins, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines, and other antibiotics, as well as separately by international nonproprietary names of drugs. The measurable unit was the number of grams of an active substance, followed by the calculation of the indicators DDD/100 bed-days and percentage of total DDD. Results. Significant changes in the structure of AD used for the initial antibacterial therapy of respiratory tract infections during the study period were revealed. There is a marked tendency to reduce the use of AD of the penicillin family and macrolides, with the transition to monotherapy with cephalosporins of the 3rd generation (ceftriaxone) and partially with fluoroquinolones. Conclusion. Monitoring the use of AD in hospital departments on basis of the ATC/DDD methodology allows to make strategic decisions regarding the tactics of antibacterial therapy, determine the orientation of administrative measures and improve the range of antibacterial agents with the introduction of the modern effective drugs into practice in the future.

КЪМ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКАТА НА СМЕСЕНИЯ ЕЗИК НА ВИЕНСКИТЕ БЪЛГАРИ ОТ ВТОРО ПОКОЛЕНИЕ / TO THE CHARACTERISATION OF THE MIXED LANGUAGE OF SECOND-GENERATION VIENNESE BULGARIANS

Second-generation emigrants who preserve a number of features of the Bulgarian language exhibit bilingualism of a subordinate type. An active process of internal simultaneous translation of a subordinate type is still observed in these speakers. The dominant foreign (Austrian) environment determines the direction of interference. At present, the initial variability between Bulgarian and German language elements typical for first-generation emigrants has begun to disappear in the speech of the second gene-ration and a marked tendency towards the stabilisation of German elements – through direct or indirect borrowing (calquing) – is under way.

THE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF METAPHORS IN PATIENTS AWAKENED FROM POST-TRAUMATIC COMA

Metaphor simply is defined as a verbal construct with two referents: one literal, based on the ordinary, concrete meanings of the word or words involved, and the other metaphorical, that is one derived from an implicit analogy between the literal referent and some other phenomenon, usually an abstraction that is implied, but not named. The aim of this paper is a description of the neuropsychology of metaphors in patients awakened from post-traumatic coma. A group of 34 patients awakened from post-traumatic coma and treated at the Reintegrative and Teaching Centre of the Polish Neuropsychological Society, Poland during the period 2017- 2019 participated in this study. This group included 15 women and 17 men, with an average age of 31.2 ± 8.72 years; as a group, the women were somewhat older (32.6 ± 9.79 vs. 31.1 ± 9.18). We recorded the patients’ utterances with the use of video record- ings of open-ended conversations, and made occasional efforts to introduce proverbs, idioms, and other metaphors into their conversation, but this was done on an impromptu basis. The analysis of recordings of 100 randomly selected statements obtained from each patient revealed the presence of 4 types of errors: (1) non-comprehension, i.e. the listener’s inability to comprehend the meaning of the metaphor used by the speaker, as indicated by the lack of an adequate response, an expression of puzzlement, or a question as to the meaning of the metaphor used by the speaker; (2) concretization, which occurs when the listener reacts to the literal meaning of the word, phrase, or sentence, rather than its metaphorical referent; (3) misapplication, when the speaker uses a familiar metaphor in an inappropriate context; (4) the use of incomprehensible or bizarre metaphors by the speaker, so that the intended meaning is difficult or impossible for the listener to ascertain. On many occasions, however, the gist of the metaphor emerged at some later point in the discourse, despite the surface problems. It was found that the TBI patients we studied showed a marked tendency in spontaneous conversation to concretize or misunderstand the metaphors used by others, and to use inappropriate or bizarre metaphors in their own speech. On many occasions, however, the gist of the metaphor emerged at some later point in the discourse, despite the surface problems.

Evolution and egalitarianism: A behavioral account of managers' performance pay decisions

I advance a behavioral account of managers’ performance pay decisions that is grounded in evolutionary psychology. In doing so, I seek to explain a common organizational phenomenon — compression in employees’ merit pay bonuses. My behavioral account puts forward two propositions. First, that compression in awards is a consequence of a fundamental human proclivity for egalitarianism. Second, that individual managers will differ in their preferences for egalitarianism: In any given organizational context, some managers will tend to be more egalitarian than other managers. Consistent with these propositions, I observe two clear patterns in how federal managers distribute performance pay awards to the group members they supervise. The first is a marked tendency for managers to give all group members awards of the same or similar size. The second is a considerable amount of between-manager variation in this tendency that cannot be explained by relevant group-level variables, such as group size and occupational diversity. To the extent feasible given my data, I probe whether my behavioral account does a better job explaining these patterns than plausible alternative explanations that are based in economics. One key implication of my theory and findings is that organizations cannot count on managers to aggressively differentiate between individual employees when they distribute performance pay awards. A second key implication is that organizations cannot rely on their managers to uniformly implement a given performance pay plan.

The Analysis of Urban Fluvial Landscapes in the Centre of Spain, Their Characterization, Values and Interventions

River areas are undoubtedly among the most valuable territorial areas in Europe, not only in terms of their eco-landscape and use but also, culturally. However, there is currently a sharp reduction in the extension and increase of deterioration of riverbanks around the world. A substantial part of losses and deterioration are associated with the artificialization of the territories, derived mainly from a less than respectful urbanization around these landscapes. Urban and peri-urban riverbanks are landscapes in expansion due to the continuous growth of built-up spaces. Therefore, they should be areas of preferential consideration, especially in territories with a marked tendency to dryness, like the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. This article aims to contribute to our understanding of these spaces through the study of four distinct cases in the centre of the peninsula, in particular: the river Manzanares running through the city of Madrid, the river Tagus in Toledo and running through Talavera de la Reina, and the river Henares in Guadalajara. Three of the four urban water courses analyzed are zones of special interest for waterfowl: they sustain a winter population that varies between 745 and 1529 birds and they provide a home to some globally threatened species. The density of the riparian birds is also very high during winter, these values oscillating between a mean of 141.16 and 240.12 birds/10 ha. It should be noted that the diversity of this group of birds in the four regions studies is also high (H > 2.4 nats). The article also examines the interventions and the urban planning criteria applied to these urban and peri-urban river spaces, inferring the need to reassess urban planning in river areas to ensure it is compatible with their operation, values and possible uses.