Search Results (1,212)

Peer-reviewed journal articles provide the data for this study, given that their findings undergird the quantitative data referenced by prominent organizations, courts, and policy-makers. The “Espy file”, based on the research of Major Watt Espy, Jr., is used to identify studies due to the dataset’s esteem and prolific usage. It is the largest known dataset of men’s and women’s executions in the United States since 1608 and has been of monumental significance to capital punishment research. The protocol established by the Preferred Reporting of Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) is the methodology followed due to its conformity to scientific standards and acceptance in scholarly communities. The initial sampling frame involved 613 studies which were narrowed to 79 peer-reviewed journal articles that cited or utilized the Espy file. The empirical findings justify the contention that past and current studies, while interdisciplinary, require new voices and approaches to contribute to the study of capital punishment. Mainstream death penalty research does not generally incorporate critical theories including, for example, gender, intersectional, Black feminist, Queer, and other theories that focus less on quantitative data and more on how capital punishment is a reflection of institutional, historical, and social processes that are hierarchical and defined by power. The findings suggest that not only are executed women removed from many analyses, but so are inclusionary methodologies and theoretical approaches that could bolster the legitimacy of academic studies (inside academia as well as the judicial system) and our understanding of capital punishment in general. Full article

Corrosion in the sheets produced leads to significant material losses, including the loss of resources, capital, labor, energy and knowledge. Corrosion control is significant for sheets produced and sent to customers in iron and steel factories. Surface corrosion testing of produced sheets and the accurate detection of corrosion levels are of great importance. The corrosion detection process for sheets in steel factories is performed visually with the naked eye. This is a subjective and time-consuming method. Identifying corrosion damage by visual detection and accurately determining the type and extent of corrosion requires expertise. Wrong decisions at this stage lead to losses during the production phase. Therefore, there is a need for systems that can automate this process and make it human-independent. In this study, a decision support system was designed to automatically detect the level of corrosion in galvanized sheets using convolutional neural networks. The average accuracy of the system is 97.5%, the average precision is 0.98, the average recall is 1 and the average F1 score is 0.99. The results we obtained indicate that a successful system has been developed for the detection and determination of corrosion levels. The high performance of the convolutional neural network models used for corrosion detection supports the practical applicability of the developed system. This system will increase the reliability and efficiency of industrial processes by enabling the accurate and automatic classification of corrosion. This system, which meets a significant need in this area for industrial organizations, reduces production costs and also makes the corrosion detection process more consistent and faster. Full article

As natural gas-fired combined cycle (NGCC) power plants continue to constitute a crucial part of the global energy landscape, their carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions pose a significant challenge to climate goals. This paper evaluates the feasibility of implementing post-combustion carbon capture, storage, and utilization (CCSU) technologies in NGCC power plants for end-of-pipe decarbonization in Uzbekistan. This study simulates and models a 450 MW NGCC power plant block, a first-generation, technically proven solvent—MEA-based CO₂ absorption plant—and CO₂ compression and pipeline transportation to nearby oil reservoirs to evaluate the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of CCSU integration. Parametric sensitivity analysis is employed to minimize energy consumption in the regeneration process. The economic analysis evaluates the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) on the basis of capital expenses (CAPEX) and operational expenses (OPEX). The results indicate that CCSU integration can significantly reduce CO₂ emissions by more than 1.05 million tonnes annually at a 90% capture rate, although it impacts plant efficiency, which decreases from 55.8% to 46.8% because of the significant amount of low-pressure steam extraction for solvent regeneration at 3.97 GJ/tonne CO₂ and multi-stage CO₂ compression for pipeline transportation and subsequent storage. Moreover, the CO₂ capture, compression, and transportation costs are almost 61 USD per tonne, with an equivalent LCOE increase of approximately 45% from the base case. This paper concludes that while CCSU integration offers a promising path for the decarbonization of NGCC plants in Uzbekistan in the near- and mid-term, its implementation requires massive investments due to the large scale of these plants. Full article

Background: This systematic review analyzes the factors that influence home advantage in basketball across various competitions in the United States and Europe. Methods: Through an investigation of English- and Spanish-language articles published in EBSCO, Scopus, Consensus, and Web of Science between 2010 and 2024 related to home advantage in basketball, 1682 articles were initially identified. After applying specific filters to ensure that only articles concerning National Basketball Association (NBA), Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), Euroleague, Spanish basketball, and European basketball were considered, 39 articles met the final requirements for in-depth analysis. Results: The studies analyzed in this review suggested that player performance, player position, and sleep influenced home advantage in competitions in Europe and the United States. Fan behavior had a bigger impact in European competitions, where teams from capital cities have a lower home advantage. In the United States, where teams must travel long distances to play, several studies indicated that teams traveling eastwards tend to perform more strongly than teams traveling westwards. Also of note is that, in many cases, COVID-19 pandemic restrictions reduced home advantage. Conclusions: This review identifies factors contributing to home advantage in basketball, compares competitions in different regions, and proposes ideas for future research such as a greater focus on women’s competitions, the impact of television, and the introduction of new performance indicators. Full article

Forest restoration projects can be categorized as climate projects, investments in the implementation of which exceed the investment costs of forest-climate projects, which reduces their attractiveness to investors. An algorithm for assessing investment costs of climate reforestation projects on disturbed lands has been developed. The potential of territories for the implementation of such project initiatives is available in all regions of Russia and amounts to more than 381 thousand hectares. For five studied polygons of disturbed lands (Kuzbass basin, Moscow basin, Western Siberia basin, as well as basins of Chelyabinsk and Belgorod Regions), the aggregated costs for the implementation of measures to create carbon-depositing plantations and ground cover were calculated. Investment costs for restoration of 1 hectare of disturbed land under the climate project vary from 82.6 thousand rubles to 116.9 thousand rubles. Cost analysis shows that the carbon intensity of investment in such projects on disturbed lands is quite high (Ccii > 1.0). The highest investment potential is observed in the Kuzbass basin, where Ccii is 2.01. To organize and implement the afforestation project on disturbed lands of the Kemerovo Region, investments in the amount of 66.7 thousand rubles/ha for capital expenditures and 24.7 thousand rubles/ha for current expenses will be required. The payback period of such an investment project, taking into account the discount rate, is 13.1 years, and during the study period (20 years) the income from the project will cover 228% of the spent funds. These data confirm that the investment potential of forest-climatic projects on disturbed lands is quite high. Full article

Enhancing the production of energy from renewable energy sources (RES) has been a consistently important issue for many years, both in Poland and other countries around the world. Selecting sites for devices that convert renewable energy into electricity requires various spatial data, especially during the initial design stage when optimal investment locations are identified. The article presents a new method for assessing the usefulness of publicly accessible Polish geodetic databases—the Topographic Objects Database (Polish name: BDOT10k) and the Digital Elevation Model (DEM, Polish name: NMT)–in the process of renewable energy infrastructure siting. This study is the first to jointly assess these two databases from the user’s perspective rather than the creator’s or administrator’s viewpoint. User requirements for spatial data were defined through research factors identified in a literature review. The methodology developed includes checking the availability of Polish geodetic databases and evaluating the quality of spatial data. Analyses were performed in a GIS environment for eighteen research areas in Poland. A suitability coefficient was developed to determine the usefulness of the databases studied. The obtained value of the suitability coefficient in each area was above 50% of its maximum value, which was taken as a threshold value proving the suitability of the analyzed databases for the purpose specified in the study. The databases are fully useful for a group of province and poviat capital cities—there the suitability coefficient value exceeds 80% of its maximum value. The studies confirmed the validity of using publicly accessible BDOT10k and DEM geodetic databases in GIS analyses for the search for sites for solar, wind, and small hydroelectric power plants. Full article

Over the last few years, hydrogen has emerged as a promising solution for problems related to energy sources and pollution concerns. The integration of hydrogen in the transport sector is one of the possible various applications and involves the implementation of hydrogen refueling stations (HRSs). A key obstacle for HRS deployment, in addition to the need for well-developed technologies, is the economic factor since these infrastructures require high capital investments costs and are largely dependent on annual operating costs. In this study, we review hydrogen’s application as a fuel, summarizing the principal systems involved in HRS, from production to the final refueling stage. In addition, we also analyze the main equipment involved in the production, compression and storage processes of hydrogen. The current work also highlights the main refueling processes that impact energy consumption and the methodologies presented in the literature for energy management strategies in HRSs. With the aim of reducing energy costs due to processes that require high energy consumption, most energy management strategies are based on the use of renewable energy sources, in addition to the use of the power grid. Full article

In the absence of comparative real estate data in the market segment of the property to be estimated, the appraiser may resort to income capitalization to estimate the market value. Often, however, the choice of which rate to apply is affected by subjective and arbitrary assessments. The estimation result can therefore be inaccurate and rather unclear. However, the Remote Segments Approach (RSA), through appropriate adjustments on the original values, prices, and incomes detected in the remote segments, makes it possible to arrive at an appraisal result consistent with estimative logic and real estate valuation standards. The proposed application illustrates the estimation of the market value of a specialized fruit orchard of avocado, which is to be considered new in relation to other fruit species already present in the reference area. The adjustments required by the RSA are solved with the General Appraisal System (GAS), defining the difference matrix based on relevant characters common to all segments considered. The application is carried out by comparing the segment in which the orchard being estimated falls (subject) with other remote market segments in which prices and incomes constituted by other tree crops are collected. The market value of the subject is derived by making adjustments to the prices and incomes observed in the remote segments of comparison with a comparison function constructed through relevant characters common to the segments considered. The comparison function makes it possible to arrive at the determination of the capitalization rate to be used in estimating the value of the fruit orchard by income approach. While it is based on the comparison of segments, the approach followed allows for a value judgment consistent with the estimation comparison and capable of providing a solution less conditioned by the appraiser’s expertise in the presence of particularly pronounced limiting conditions. Full article

This study examines the impact of international trade activities on employment in the Portuguese textiles and apparel industry from 2010 to 2017. It finds evidence that imports and exports have a persistent, negative, and significant effect on overall job creation, with this impact intensifying over the long-run. Additionally, the increasing elasticity of substitution between imports and exports indicates that private companies of this industry have benefited from a win–win situation characterised by higher production volumes and lower marginal costs. By applying an unsupervised machine-learning method, followed by a discrete choice analysis to infer the firm-level propensity to possess green capital, we identify a phenomenon termed the green international trade paradox. This study also reveals that international trade activities positively influence green job creation in firms lacking green capital if and only if these players are engaged in international markets while negatively affecting firms already endowed with green technologies. As such, empirical results suggest that the export-oriented economic model followed over the last decade by the Portuguese textiles and apparel industry has not necessarily generated new domestic employment opportunities but has significantly altered the magnitude and profile of skill requirements that employers seek to identify in new workforce hires. Full article

The construction sector is a significant contributor to energy consumption and emissions. With the steady increase in the cost of energy carriers and the costs of energy production, the cost for consumers is also increasing. Therefore, the search for solutions capable of reducing energy consumption by increasing the energy efficiency of building structures, in particular the use of prefabricated timber-frame technology, is ongoing. Recent energy supply uncertainties and high costs necessitate the pursuit of green solutions. Timber construction, especially prefabricated timber-frame technology, holds promise due to its renewability and energy efficiency. However, housing estates built using this technology often lack service infrastructure, like shops, crèches, kindergartens, and offices, affecting resident comfort. This study proposes a methodology to select the optimal utility function for a residential building in such an estate, thus enhancing living conditions. The building’s potential new functions—a shop, nursery, or office—were evaluated based on economic criteria, thermal comfort, building airtightness, energy efficiency, and vibration comfort. The analysis indicates that converting the building into a shop requires the least capital investment, making it the most economically beneficial option. Full article

The goal of this research is to investigate whether taxation affects the leverage decisions of banks and if the response of leverage to tax increases depends on profit-shifting opportunities available to individual banks. This topic remains controversial since it is often believed that banking regulation is such an essential driver of leverage choices that little room is left for other considerations studied in the corporate finance literature. Using a difference-in-differences setup encompassing the period from 2006 to 2017, we exploit two exogenous income tax rate increases applicable to 225 Brazilian banks, employing novel identification strategies based on the intricacies of local taxation rules and on the distinctions between individual banks and financial conglomerates. We find stark differences in the behavior of banks around the two events, with a substantial increase in leverage following the first tax hike but no leverage response following the second. In addition, we find no evidence of heterogeneous effects based on the amount of profit-shifting opportunities available to individual banks. Regulatory concerns possibly became more relevant for leverage decisions during the period around the second tax hike because it coincided with the implementation of stricter capital requirements associated with the Basel III framework. Taken together, our results suggest that financial institutions balance considerations regarding the tax-shield benefits of debt against regulatory concerns specific to the banking industry when making capital structure choices. Full article

With the increasing global concern regarding climate change and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies are seen as one of the primary steps toward large-scale decarbonization prospects. In this context, a thorough assessment of each CCU pathway is required from both the techno-economic and environmental perspectives. In this work, the potential of carbon biofixation through microalgae cultivation is evaluated through the preliminary technical design and calculation of plant economics in the case of the Turakurgan natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant located in the eastern part of Uzbekistan. The primary data used in this study are obtained from the open access project report of the targeted power station, along with recently published literature sources. According to the results, although the purchase and installation costs of photobioreactors require significant investments in the capital costs, the technology would still be cost competitive as long as there is a carbon tax imposition of around USD 50 per ton of CO₂ emissions. However, CO₂ biofixation can be relatively more suitable compared to benchmark absorption, particularly in low-CO₂-concentration conditions. Future research will involve a more comprehensive examination of CO₂-based microalgae cultivation and its comparison with chemical absorption and membrane-assisted separation techniques. Full article

Growing uncertainty in supply and demand in power systems causes significant challenges in maintaining supply reliability at affordable costs. Power grids are expected to undergo substantial transformations to address these challenges with upgrades and integration of emerging smart technologies that require significant investment costs. A value-based reliability assessment of these grid technologies is necessary to justify the worth of these investments. A key parameter required in such an assessment is the cost of power interruptions originating from transmission system failures. The interruption cost data available in published reports and past surveys relate to generation inadequacy since generation facilities comprise the most capital-intensive investment of an electric utility. Customer interruptions due to a lack of generation mainly occur due to generation failures during the peak demand period, whereas interruptions due to transmission component failures can occur at other periods with specific probabilities. This paper presents a methodology to estimate the cost of outages originating from transmission asset failures, which proposes a sector period model for each customer sector to obtain associated demand-normalized interruption costs. The proposed method can also be used to decide investment in grid resiliency enhancement against extreme weather that mainly impacts the grid network facilities. Full article

Enterprise development is a multifaceted and strategic endeavor that serves as the cornerstone of an organization’s long-term success and sustainability. It represents not merely growth or expansion but a comprehensive transformation that enhances a company’s capabilities, market presence, and internal processes. This development is driven by a deliberate and systematic effort to improve performance across all areas of business activity, aligning with stakeholders’ aspirations and organizational goals. In this context, enterprise development encompasses the strategic management of the organization’s trajectory through effective planning, execution, and evaluation of development initiatives. It demands an adaptive and responsive approach to the rapidly evolving business environment, where challenges and opportunities arise constantly. This requires leveraging modern management practices and analytical tools to integrate various components of the company’s operations, including human resources, finances, technology, and marketing, fostering a cohesive and dynamic growth strategy. The essence of enterprise development lies in the organization’s ability to remain agile—capable of swiftly responding to market changes while proactively seeking and capitalizing on new opportunities. This involves not only addressing external competitive pressures but also mitigating internal risks, ensuring that the enterprise is well-positioned to navigate and thrive in complex environments. The issues related to the phenomenon of enterprise development refer to the geographical area of the so-called Global North. The aim of this entry is to explore and critically analyze contemporary strategies and models that facilitate effective management and acceleration of enterprise growth, providing a framework for organizations aiming to achieve excellence and innovation in the modern economic landscape. Full article

Objectives: This study investigates the feasibility of implementing telescreening for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) using the ICON GO^® widefield camera operated by a non-physician healthcare professional (NPHP). We hypothesized that images captured by an NPHP are adequate to evaluate ROP changes without further examinations. Secondly, the level of agreement between independent ROP graders were evaluated based on the fundus photographs. Methods: National ROP screening criteria were gestational age (GA) < 32 weeks or birthweight (BW) < 1500 g. Exclusion criteria were children hospitalized and born outside the Capital Region and examinations not performed by an NPHP. The screenings were performed using the ICON GO^®. The NPHP selected the best images for evaluation by an on-site ophthalmologist, regarding whether re-examination was necessary and if so, whether the re-examination was beneficial. Lastly, the images were re-evaluated by an independent off-site ophthalmologist. Results: A total of 415 screening sessions on 165 patients performed by an NPHP were included. Re-examination was necessary in three screening sessions and beneficial in two. The level of agreement between the on-site and off-site ophthalmologists regarding ROP screening outcome was k = 0.82, ROP stage k = 0.69, plus disease k = 0.69, and lastly ROP zone k = 0.37. Of the screened children, ninety-seven (58.8%) had no ROP at any time points, sixty-two (37.6%) had some stage of ROP not requiring treatment, and six (3.6%) received ROP treatment. Conclusions: Telemedicine screening for ROP with the ICON GO^® camera performed by an NPHP was feasible with an almost-perfect agreement and negligible need for re-examinations. The approach effectively identified children needing treatment, supporting the use of telescreening in ROP management. Full article