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Feasibility Analysis (feasibility + analysis)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Engineering	25%

Selected Abstracts

Political Feasibility Analysis of the New Financing Scheme for the National Health Insurance Reform in Taiwan: An Application of Stakeholder Analysis

ASIAN SOCIAL WORK AND POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2010
Chao-Yin Lin
This study carries out in-depth political feasibility analysis of the prospective health financing reform currently taking place in Taiwan. The National Health Insurance (NHI) Program, which was established in Taiwan in 1995, covers virtually all of the island's citizens. Between the years 2001 and 2004, the Taiwanese Government organized a taskforce to carry out the wholesale reform of the NHI program into the so-called ,Second Generation NHI Program'. This study is part of the comprehensive review, focusing on the preferences and positions of key policy stakeholders with regard to the financial reform proposals, as well as their network relationships. The approach of stakeholder analysis was employed to conduct this empirical study. The results reveal that the new financing scheme has a certain degree of support from the policy stakeholders participating in this study, and that in particular, the measures concerning equity and sustainability were most welcome. However, controversy remains with regard to the issue of the equitable sharing of contributions. It is clear that there is much strong support for the new scheme amongst the administrative and legislative elite, although the same level of support is not evident amongst the social elite affiliated with employees' associations and welfare groups. [source]

Expected loss-based alarm threshold set for earthquake early warning systems

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS, Issue 9 2007
Iunio Iervolino
Abstract Earthquake early warning systems (EEWS) seem to have potential as tools for real-time seismic risk management and mitigation. In fact, although the evacuation of buildings requires warning time not available in many urbanized areas threatened by seismic hazard, they may still be used for the real-time protection of critical facilities using automatic systems in order to reduce the losses subsequent to a catastrophic event. This is possible due to the real-time seismology, which consists of methods and procedures for the rapid estimation of earthquake features, as magnitude and location, based on measurements made on the first seconds of the P -waves. An earthquake engineering application of earthquake early warning (EEW) may be intended as a system able to issue the alarm, if some recorded parameter exceeds a given threshold, to activate risk mitigation actions before the quake strikes at a site of interest. Feasibility analysis and design of such EEWS require the assessment of the expected loss reduction due to the security action and set of the alarm threshold. In this paper a procedure to carry out these tasks in the performance-based earthquake engineering probabilistic framework is proposed. A merely illustrative example refers to a simple structure assumed to be a classroom. Structural damage and non-structural collapses are considered; the security action is to shelter occupants below the desks. The cost due to a false alarm is assumed to be related to the interruption of didactic activities. Results show how the comparison of the expected losses, for the alarm-issuance and non-issuance cases, allows setting the alarm threshold on a quantitative and consistent basis, and how it may be a tool for the design of engineering applications of EEW. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Feasibility of pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei culture in southern Brazil: effects of stocking density and a single or a double CROP management strategy in earthen ponds

AQUACULTURE RESEARCH, Issue 2 2010
Dariano Krummenauer
Abstract Marine shrimp culture at southern Brazil is restricted to the warmer season (November to April). Therefore, farmers must consider culture strategies and competition with shrimp landings from artisanal fishery. The fishing season starts every 1 February; in order to obtain higher prices, farmers may consider shrimp culture in two crops, with a first harvest before the start of the fishing season, and a second harvest after the end of the landings. The present study evaluated the performance and feasibility of Litopenaeus vannamei reared at 10, 25 and 40 shrimp m,2 either in two short consecutive culture cycles or one longer cycle (LC). The experimental design consisted of two sets of nine pens installed in a 3.8 ha earthen pond. In one set of pens, shrimp were harvested after 75 days and pens were restocked for another 75-day-long rearing period. In the second set of pens, shrimp were cultured for 150 days. Shrimp survival and final weight ranged from 79% to 91% and 6.67 to 14.53 g respectively. Feasibility analysis pointed towards culture at higher densities (25 and 40 shrimp m,2) in a LC as productivity (2274,4227 kg ha,1) and shrimp final weight (13.05,13.21 g) resulted in higher profitability (US$7761,12 379). [source]

Heating and cooling energy recovery for an HVAC system: Economic analysis for the Italian climate

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH, Issue 8 2001
Adolfo Palombo
Abstract In this paper the economic analysis of the energy recovery in all-outdoor-air HVAC systems for the Italian climate is performed. The energy recovery device considered here is the same for both heating and cooling periods. During the summer season, the energy saving is achieved by evaporative cooling. The performances of the hybrid innovative HVAC system and the traditional system are calculated hour by hour by following the test reference year (TRY) profile. Such analysis is carried out taking into account simultaneously, the trend of some climatic indexes computed in order to (i) better understand the influence of climate on the HVAC system behaviour, (ii) obtain a swift feasibility analysis of the energy recovery system and (iii) perform a rough operating cost estimate of the traditional HVAC system. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Privatization and the allure of franchising: a Zambian feasibility study,

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2003
John L. Fiedler
Abstract Efforts to privatize portions of the health sector have proven more difficult to implement than had been anticipated previously. One common bottleneck encountered has been the traditional organizational structure of the private sector, with its plethora of independent, single physician practices. The atomistic nature of the sector has rendered many privatization efforts difficult, slow and costly,in terms of both organizational development and administration. In many parts of Africa, in particular, the shortages of human and social capital, and the fragile nature of legal institutions, undermine the appeal of privatization. The private sector is left with inefficiencies, high prices and costs, and a reduced effective demand. The result is the simultaneous existence of excess capacity and unmet need. One potential method to improve the efficiency of the private sector, and thereby enhance the likelihood of successful privatization, is to transfer managerial technology,via franchising,from models that have proven successful elsewhere. This paper presents a feasibility analysis of franchizing the successful Bolivian PROSALUD system's management package to Zambia. The assessment, based on PROSALUD's financial model, demonstrates that technology transfer requires careful adaptation to local conditions and, in this instance, would still require significant external assistance. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Using feasible regions to design and optimize reactive distillation columns with ideal VLE

AICHE JOURNAL, Issue 5 2006
Warren R. Hoffmaster
Abstract The design and optimization of reactive distillation columns using feasibility analysis is addressed. Based on the feasible regions identified in previous work, we present two examples to illustrate the benefits of having feasibility information when locating design alternatives for systems with ideal vapor,liquid equilibrium. The examples include a reactive column for the metathesis of 2-pentene and a multifeed reactive column with a constant volatility mixture. In the first example, we use the feasible regions to initialize an optimization-based design strategy. For the second example, we characterize the feasible regions to determine feasible placement strategies for side streams and reactive stages. The design insights gained from feasibility analysis are highlighted for each example. © 2006 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2006 [source]

Feedback control in flashing ratchets,

ANNALEN DER PHYSIK, Issue 2-3 2008
E.M. Craig
Abstract A flashing ratchet uses a time-dependent, spatially periodic, asymmetric potential to rectify thermal motion of Brownian particles. Here we review approaches to improve the particle flux in this type of Brownian motor by feedback strategies that switch the potential based on the instantaneous particle distribution. We review strategies that are based on the force experienced by the particles, and introduce a new feedback strategy that is based on the expected displacement that can be achieved. Langevin dynamics simulations show that this maximum net displacement strategy performs better than force-based strategies in the limit of very small particle numbers and not too high temperatures. We also review the effects of time delay and noisy channels on feedback control, and perform a feasibility analysis of an experimental system that can realize feedback control using a computer-controlled, scanning-line optical trap and suspended microspheres. [source]