•This paper reviews hybrids of CSP with coal, natural gas, biomass, wind, geothermal.•Technologies have been categorized into high, medium, and low-renewable hybrids.•CO2 emissions highest for ...low-renewable hybrids, followed by medium and high.•Low-renewable hybrids offer higher efficiency and capacity factor at lower cost.
This paper reviews the hybrid power generation technologies of concentrated solar power (CSP) and other renewable and non-renewable resources such as biomass, wind, geothermal, coal, and natural gas. The technologies have been categorized into high, medium, and low-renewable hybrids based on their renewable energy component. The high-renewable hybrids report the least specific CO2 emissions (<100kg/MWh), followed by the medium (<200kg/MWh) and low-renewable hybrids (>200kg/MWh). The hybrids have been compared based on their plant characteristics and performance metrics using data from the literature and of actual hybrid power plants. The low-renewable hybrids such as ISCC, solar-Brayton, and solar-aided coal Rankine power systems are technologically mature and offer superior performance over the high and medium-renewable hybrids. The medium renewable hybrids such as solar plants with natural gas backup offer high solar share but suffer mostly from low efficiency and high cost that hinders their market penetration. The high-renewable hybrids such as CSP-wind, CSP-biomass, and CSP-geothermal have minimum negative impact on the environment. However, several parameters such as energy efficiency, solar-to-electricity efficiency, capacity factor, and cost effectiveness need to improve for these systems to be competitive.
COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out in South Africa beginning in February 2021. In this study we retrospectively assessed the cost-effectiveness of the vaccination programme in its first two years of ...implementation.
We modelled the costs, expressed in 2021 US$, and health outcomes of the COVID-19 vaccination programme compared to a no vaccination programme scenario. The study was conducted from a public payer’s perspective over two time-horizons – nine months (February to November 2021) and twenty-four months (February 2021 to January 2023). Health outcomes were estimated from a disease transmission model parameterised with data on COVID-19-related hospitalisations and deaths and were converted to disability adjusted life years (DALYs). Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses (DSA and PSA) were conducted to assess parameter uncertainty.
Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was estimated at US$1600 per DALY averted during the first study time horizon. The corresponding ICER for the second study period was estimated at US$1300 per DALY averted. When 85% of all excess deaths during these periods were included in the analysis, ICERs in the first and second study periods were estimated at US$1070 and US$660 per DALY averted, respectively. In the PSA, almost 100% of simulations fell below the estimated opportunity cost-based cost-effectiveness threshold for South Africa (US$2300 DALYs averted). COVID-19 vaccination programme cost per dose had the greatest impact on the ICERs.
Our findings suggest that South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination programme represented good value for money in the first two years of rollout.
Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm this research investigates how an integrated marketing communication (IMC) capability drives a brand's financial performance through influencing ...the effectiveness of communication campaigns and the brand's market-based performance. The results illustrate that an IMC capability has a significant direct effect on campaign effectiveness and significant indirect effect on a brand's market-based performance and financial performance. The study highlights the role of IMC as a key firm-specific capability with significant impact on performance outcomes. Competitively, the more the firm is able to build its distinctive IMC capability, the greater its campaign effectiveness, which in turn leads to superior brand market-based and financial performance.
From an international review of 109 school effectiveness research studies, only 6 could be seen as theory driven. As the border between substantive conceptual models of educational effectiveness and ...theory-based models is not always very sharp, this number might be increased to 11 by including those studies that are based on models that make reference to specific broader conceptual principles. From this perspective, the most important conceptual/theoretical approaches are the dynamic model of educational effectiveness (Creemers & Kyriakides, 2006), micro-economic theory, and organizational scientific perspectives, like the Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983) competing values framework. As the use of theoretical principles in educational effectiveness research is likely to remain eclectic rather than encompassing and re-constructional rather than pro-active, piecemeal improvement of conceptual models is seen as an effective approach to furthering the field, next to the search for theory-based explanatory mechanisms.
The study by Kambhampati et al. offers the first European perspective on cost‐effectiveness of pola‐R‐CHP in the frontline line treatment of DLBCL patients. Nevertheless, the applicability of these ...results in other European settings remain questionable: Germany is indeed a wealthy country with wide access to cellular therapies in earlier lines, while this might not be the case for other European countries. The presented data must be re‐assessed when long term data on PFS and OS from the POLARIX trial are available, ideally considering also real‐life data. Similar CEAs in other European health care systems as well as in specific subgroups of patients are welcome to offer a broader perspective on the potential role of pola‐R‐CHP in Europe.
Commentary on: Kambhampati et al. Cost effectiveness of polatuzumab vedotin in combination with chemoimmunotherapy (pola‐R‐CHP) in previously untreated diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma in Germany. Br J Haematol 2023;202:771–775.
Objectives
This study analysed the cost‐effectiveness of two different attachments for the 2‐implant overdenture (2IOD) in edentulous mandibles.
Materials and methods
When considering alternative ...treatments, cost‐effectiveness analysis is an important factor for stakeholders (patient, clinician, social security, insurance company, etc.). A general practice population (n = 116) was treated between 2003 and 2013 with a mandibular 2IOD with 2 different ball/stud attachment systems, one spherical (Group D) and one cylindrical (Group L). Patient well‐being was assessed with OHIP‐14‐Total (OHIP‐14‐T), at intake and annually up to 5 years, to calculate the health effect. Initial and maintenance costs of both treatments were inventoried. The cost‐effectiveness was compared. Annual discount rates of 4% and 1.5% were applied to future costs and health outcomes, following Dutch guidelines. Prices were adjusted to the year 2003. To offset the uncertainty in relevant input parameters, a sensitivity analysis was performed using bootstrap analysis. Significance was set at p < .05.
Results
The health effect was 6.36 (SD 5.32) for Group D and 8.54 (SD 5.63) for Group L. The sum of the discounted costs up to 5 years was EUR 4,210.98 (SD 634.75) for the D and EUR 3,840.62 (SD 302.63) for the Group L (p = .005). The bootstrapping reports that L abutment clearly dominates the D abutment in terms of cost‐effectiveness.
Conclusions
The 2IOD on the L abutment is dominant compared to the 2IOD on D abutment, in a 5‐year perspective.
Coastal risks are increasing from both development and climate change. Interest is growing in the protective role that coastal nature-based measures (or green infrastructure), such as reefs and ...wetlands, can play in adapting to these risks. However, a lack of quantitative information on their relative costs and benefits is one principal factor limiting their use more broadly. Here, we apply a quantitative risk assessment framework to assess coastal flood risk (from climate change and economic exposure growth) across the United States Gulf of Mexico coast to compare the cost effectiveness of different adaptation measures. These include nature-based (e.g. oyster reef restoration), structural or grey (e.g., seawalls) and policy measures (e.g. home elevation). We first find that coastal development will be a critical driver of risk, particularly for major disasters, but climate change will cause more recurrent losses through changes in storms and relative sea level rise. By 2030, flooding will cost $134-176.6 billion (for different economic growth scenarios), but as the effects of climate change, land subsidence and concentration of assets in the coastal zone increase, annualized risk will more than double by 2050 with respect to 2030. However, from the portfolio we studied, the set of cost-effective adaptation measures (with benefit to cost ratios above 1) could prevent up to $57-101 billion in losses, which represents 42.8-57.2% of the total risk. Nature-based adaptation options could avert more than $50 billion of these costs, and do so cost effectively with average benefit to cost ratios above 3.5. Wetland and oyster reef restoration are found to be particularly cost-effective. This study demonstrates that the cost effectiveness of nature-based, grey and policy measures can be compared quantitatively with one another, and that the cost effectiveness of adaptation becomes more attractive as climate change and coastal development intensifies in the future. It also shows that investments in nature-based adaptation could meet multiple objectives for environmental restoration, adaptation and flood risk reduction.
Recently, it has become clear that non-Hermitian phenomena can be observed not only in open quantum systems experiencing gain and loss but also in equilibrium single-particle properties of strongly ...correlated systems. However, the circumstances and requirements for the emergence of non-Hermitian phenomena in each field are entirely different. While the implementation of postselection is a significant obstacle to observe the dynamics governed by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian in open quantum systems, it is unnecessary in strongly correlated systems. Until now, a relation between both descriptions of non-Hermitian phenomena has not been revealed. In this Letter, we close this gap and demonstrate that the non-Hermitian Hamiltonians emerging in both fields are identical, and we clarify the conditions for the emergence of a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian in strongly correlated materials. Using this knowledge, we propose a method to analyze non-Hermitian properties without the necessity of postselection by studying specific response functions of open quantum systems and strongly correlated systems.
Background. Most severe and fatal cases of pertussis occur in infants <8 weeks of age, before initiation of the primary pertussis vaccine series. Women are recommended to receive tetanus, diphtheria, ...and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine at the start of the third trimester of each pregnancy to optimize transplacental transfer of antibodies to the fetus. This recommendation was made by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices based on immunogenicity data, and no studies in the United States have yet evaluated the effectiveness of this strategy in reducing pertussis incidence in infants. Methods. We evaluated a cohort of mothers with documented Tdap vaccination histories in the California Immunization Registry to determine whether infants whose mothers received Tdap vaccine at 27–36 weeks gestation had a lower risk of pertussis at <8 weeks of age than infants born to women who received Tdap vaccine within 14 days post partum. Results. Tdap vaccination received at 27–36 weeks gestation was found to be 85% (95% confidence interval, 33%–98%) more effective than postpartum Tdap vaccination at preventing pertussis in infants <8 weeks of age. Vaccination at 27–36 weeks gestation was more effective at preventing pertussis in infant than vaccination during the second trimester. Conclusions. Tdap vaccination at 27–36 weeks gestation was 85% more effective than postpartum vaccination at preventing pertussis in infants <8 weeks of age. Efforts should be made by prenatal care providers to provide Tdap vaccine to pregnant women during routine prenatal visits at the earliest opportunity between 27 and 36 weeks gestation.
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