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Resumo As práticas de conservação ambiental cada vez mais estão sendo requisitadas pela sociedade para solucionar as crises de eventos climáticos extremos e da perda contínua da biodiversidade. Entretanto um dos maiores desafios no processo de priorização de áreas protegidas que atendam as metas de conservação é a inclusão e a espacialização dos custos monetários na função-objetivo do planejamento para aquisição de áreas que melhor refletem o processo de tomada de decisão no território. Nós apresentamos neste manuscrito os custos monetários de aquisição do direito da propriedade de uma parcela de terra e os custos de oportunidade das bacias hidrográficas dos rios Piracicaba, Capivari e Jundiaí. Nossa abordagem deriva dos procedimentos metodológicos da análise espacial e do sensoriamento remoto, para sistematizar e associar as informações tabulares das instituições de assistência e economia rural com elementos naturais adquiridos através do mapeamento temático do uso e cobertura da terra. Deste modo, utilizamos a integração da matriz geoespacial monetária com objetos exatos derivados do sensor multiespectral Operation Land Imager (OLI) acoplado no satélite Landsat 8. No geral, identificamos que os custos monetários da ação de conservação na área de estudo apresentam valores inversos e que os incluir na função-objetivo do planejamento pode priorizar áreas protegidas com menor conflito pelo uso da terra em relação as diversas atividades econômicas no território. Resumen Las prácticas de conservación ambiental son ampliamente requeridas por la sociedad para resolver la crisis de los fenómenos meteorológicos extremos y la pérdida continua de biodiversidad. Sin embargo, uno de los mayores desafíos en el proceso de priorización de áreas protegidas que cumplen con las metas de conservación, es la inclusión y la distribución espacial de los costos monetarios en la función objetiva de la planificación para la adquisición de áreas que reflejen mejor el proceso de toma de decisiones en el territorio. En el presente trabajo, presentamos los costos monetarios que se desdoblan en la adquisición del derecho a la propiedad de una parcela de tierra y el costo de oportunidad de las cuencas hidrográficas de los ríos Piracicaba, Capivari y Jundiaí. Nuestro enfoque deriva de los procedimientos metodológicos del análisis espacial y la teledetección, para sistematizar y asociar la información tabular de las instituciones de asistencia y economía rural con los elementos naturales adquiridos a través de la cartografía temática de uso y cobertura del suelo. Así, se utilizó la integración de la matriz geoespacial monetaria con objetos exactos derivados del sensor multiespectral Operation Land Imager (OLI) acoplado al Landsat 8. En general, encontramos que los costos monetarios de las acciones de conservación en el área de estudio, tienen valores inversos y que incluirlos en la función de planificación objetiva puede priorizar áreas protegidas con menos conflicto por el uso de la tierra en relación con las diversas actividades económicas que se desarrollan en el territorio. Abstract Society has been increasingly demanding of better environmental conservation practices as a solution to the ongoing crisis causing extreme weather events and biodiversity loss. Yet, a key issue for the definition of priority locations for protected areas that meet the intended conservation goals remains: how to factor and spatialize monetary costs in the goal-function of the planning for areas that better reflect the decision-making influences in the territory. We presented, in this study, the monetary acquisition costs for land purchasing and the opportunity costs for the Piracicaba, Capivari and Jundiaí watersheds. We adopt an approach derived from spatial analysis and remote sensing methodological processes to compile and link information tabulated from farmer assistance institutions with information on natural elements obtained through land use and land cover mapping. Subsequently, we merged data from the geospatial monetary matrix with exact-objects data obtained from the Operation Land Imager (OLI) multispectral sensor attached to the Landsat 8 satellite. Finally, we identified that the monetary costs for conservation actions in the study area have inverse values and that including them in the planning goal-function can help prioritize protected areas that will be less prone to conflict over land-use due to clashes with the economic activity of a territory.

Comunicació presentada a 25th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI 2022), celebrat del 18 al 22 de setembre de 2022 a Sentosa, Singapur. Diagnosis through imaging generally requires the combination of several modalities. Algorithms for data fusion allow merging information from different sources, mostly combining all images in a single step. In contrast, much less attention has been given to the incremental addition of new data descriptors, and the consideration of their costs (which can cover economic costs but also patient comfort and safety). In this work, we formalise clinical diagnosis of a patient as a sequential process of decisions, each of these decisions being whether to take an additional acquisition, or, if there is enough information, to end the examination and produce a diagnosis. We formulate the goodness of a diagnosis process as a combination of the classification accuracy minus the cost of the acquired modalities. To obtain a policy, we apply reinforcement learning, which recommends the next modality to incorporate based on data acquired at previous stages and aiming at maximising the accuracy/cost trade-off. This policy therefore performs medical diagnosis and patient-wise feature selection simultaneously. We demonstrate the relevance of this strategy on two binary classification datasets: a subset of a public heart disease database, including 531 instances with 11 scalar features, and a private echocardiographic dataset including signals from 5 standard image sequences used to assess cardiac function (2 speckle tracking, 2 flow Doppler and tissue Doppler), from 188 patients suffering hypertension, and 60 controls. For each individual, our algorithm allows acquiring only the modalities relevant for the diagnosis, avoiding low-information acquisitions, which both resulted in higher stability of the chosen modalities and better classification performance under a limited budget. The authors acknowledge the partial support from the French ANR (LABEX PRIMES of Univ. Lyon [ANR-11-LABX-0063] and the JCJC project “MIC-MAC” [ANR-19-CE45-0005]) and the Spanish AEI [PID2019-108141GB-I00].

Wesentlicher Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit ist es, einen Überblick über die Einkünfteermittlung der Vermietung von Grundstücken zu Wohnzwecken zu geben. Zudem will der Autor der Frage nachgehen, welche ertragsteuerlichen und umsatzsteuerlichen Konsequenzen folgen können, wenn eine Einnahmenerzielungsabsicht besteht. Dabei setzt der Autor voraus, dass ein Gesamtüberschuss der Einnahmen über die Werbungskosten in einem absehbaren Zeitraum verwirklicht werden. Die Betrachtung der ertragsteuerlichen und umsatzsteuerlichen Folgen wird aus Vermieterseite dargestellt. Der Gesetzgeber novellierte in den letzten Jahren einzelne Verordnungen und Gesetze, sodass diese Änderungen zwangsläufig Folgen für die Besteuerung der Vermietung und Verpachtung nach sich ziehen. In der Arbeit wird unter anderem die neu geregelte AfA sowie die Grundanteilsverordnung 2015/2016 beleuchtet und deren mögliche steuerliche Konsequenzen aufgezeigt. The main focus of this work is to give an overview of the income determination of renting out real estate for residential purposes. In addition, the author wants to address the question of what income tax and VAT tax consequences can follow, if there is an intention to generate income. In doing so, the author assumes that an overall surplus of income over income-related expenses will be achieved in a foreseeable period of time. The consideration of the income tax and VAT tax consequences is presented from the landlord's side. The legislator has amended individual ordinances and laws in recent years, so that these changes inevitably have consequences for the taxation of renting and leasing. Among other things, the paper examines the newly regulated depreciation, as well as the land lots regulation 2015/2016 and their possible tax consequences.

LCCbyg is a calculation tool for lifecycle cost calculations for buildings or building parts. LCCbyg produces a clear overview of the building's lifecycle costs and revenues seen over the selected calculation period with regard to acquisition, operation, maintenance, supply, cleaning, etc. LCCbyg can support decision-makers in comparing two or more alternative solutions and choose the most economical solution in the long run. This publication describes how to install LCCbyg version 3.1 on a computer depending on the operating system and how to use the various functions of the application. LCCbyg is a calculation tool for lifecycle cost calculations for buildings or building parts. LCCbyg produces a clear overview of the building's lifecycle costs and revenues seen over the selected calculation period with regard to acquisition, operation, maintenance, supply, cleaning, etc. LCCbyg can support decision-makers in comparing two or more alternative solutions and choose the most economical solution in the long run. This publication describes how to install LCCbyg version 3.1 on a computer depending on the operating system and how to use the various functions of the application.

Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den diversen Arten von Vermietungstätigkeiten über Online-Plattformen und deren abgaben- und steuerrechtlichen Behandlung nach österreichischem Recht. Um eine umfassende Bewertung vornehmen zu können, wird die Thematik anhand der Normen des Einkommensteuergesetz 1988 und der Bundesabgabenordnung analysiert und erläutert. Den Ausgangspunkt dieser Arbeit stellt eine neue, richtungsweisende höchstgerichtliche Entscheidung über die Einstufung von Vermietungen über Online-Plattformen als Einkünfte aus Vermietung und Verpachtung oder Einkünfte aus Gewerbebetrieb dar. In der Bundesabgabenordnung sind die Begriffe Vermögensverwaltung bzw Gewerbebetrieb genau definiert. ISd Bundesabgabenordnung gehören Vermietungseinkünfte grundsätzlich zur Vermögensverwaltung. Wenn aber die Leistung über die bloße Nutzungsüberlassung hinausgeht oder durch die Anzahl von vermieteten Objekten eine erhöhte Verwaltungsarbeit entsteht, wird diese Tätigkeit dem betrieblichen Bereich zugeordnet. In der gegenständlichen höchstgerichtlichen Entscheidung konnten weder ein erhöhter Verwaltungsaufwand noch Nebenleistungen nachgewiesen werden. Jedoch wurde die Vermietungstätigkeit aufgrund des Gesamtbildes (begründet mit der Teilnahme am allgemeinen wirtschaftlichen Verkehr) als Gewerbebetrieb eingestuft. This thesis deals with the various types of rental activities and their commercial and tax law treatment under Austrian law. In order to be able to make a comprehensive assessment, this topic is analyzed and explained on the basis of the Austrian Income Tax Legislation (EStG 1988) and the Federal Fiscal Code (BAO). The starting point of this work is a new, trend-setting decision of the Austrian Supreme Court on the assessment of rentals via online platforms as income from rentals and leasing or income from business operations. In the Federal Fiscal Code, BAO the terms asset management and commercial enterprise are precisely defined. According to the Federal Fiscal Code, rental income is generally considered to be asset management. If, however, the service goes beyond the mere transfer of use or if the number of rented properties involves increased administrative work, this activity is assigned to the commercial sector. In the jurisdiction in question, neither increased administrative effort nor ancillary services could be determined. However, based on the overall picture (justified by the participation in general economic transactions) the rental activity was classified as a commercial business operation.

In various countries, offset policies allow economic developments to proceed on condition that proponents undertake agreed actions that offset the resulting losses of environmental values. Although ecological and environmental benefits are the main concern of a conservation agency when assessing an offset proposal, it is also important to be aware of the full cost of implementing the offset. However, there is currently a lack of understanding of the costs of implementing offsets, including which costs are relevant and what their magnitudes are. To address this knowledge gap, we developed a typology of costs that are relevant to offset schemes. We searched the publicly available information on costs of offset activities for thirty-four threatened species and communities in Australia to apply our cost framework. The results indicate that cost information is lacking in many cases. Information about some of the cost categories is not available for any of the species (e.g., induced costs to other areas or sectors). It is not clear whether the unreported cost categories are not considered during negotiation or whether it is just a case of lack of reporting.

Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. M. Ruiz, J. Ramos, G. Sutter, J. E. Lopez de Vergara, S. Lopez-Buedo and J. Aracil, "Accurate and affordable packet-train testing systems for multi-gigabit-per-second networks," in IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 80-87, March 2016. doi: 10.1109/MCOM.2016.7432152, Communication networks these days face a relentless increase in traffic load. Multi-gigabit-per-second links are becoming widespread, and network devices are under continuous stress, so testing whether they guarantee the specified throughput or delay is a must. Software-based solutions, such as packet-train traffic injection, were adequate for lower speeds, but they have become inaccurate in the current scenario. Hardware-based solutions have proved to be very accurate, but usually at the expense of much higher development and acquisition costs. Fortunately, new affordable FPGA SoC devices, as well as high-level synthesis tools, can very efficiently reduce these costs. In this article we show the advantages of hardware-based solutions in terms of accuracy, comparing the results obtained in an FPGA SoC development platform and in NetFPGA-10G to those of software. Results show that a hardware-based solution is significantly better, especially at 10 Gb/s. By leveraging high-level synthesis and open source platforms, prototypes were quickly developed. Noticeable advantages of our proposal are high accuracy, competitive cost with respect to the software counterpart, which runs in high-end off-the-shelf workstations, and the capability to easily evolve to upcoming 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s networks., This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the project PackTrack (TEC2012-33754) and by the European Union through the Integrated Project (IP) IDEALIST under grant agreement FP7-317999

Predmet našega raziskovanja sta distribucijska centra podjetja Intereuropa d. d., ki sta locirana v Mariboru in Celju. S pomočjo pridobljenih podatkov od podjetja Intereuropa d. d. smo opravili številne analize, s pomočjo katerih smo ugotavljali, ali je potrebna reorganizacija katerega izmed distribucijskih centrov z namenom zmanjšanja stroškov podjetja Intereuropa d. d. Reorganizacija je predvsem mišljena v smislu, ali je za podjetje bolj ugodno kateri izmed dveh distribucijskih centrov ukiniti ali obdržati obstoječe stanje. Tako smo v prvem delu naloge opredelili teoretične osnove, kjer smo ugotovili, da so distribucijski centri zelo pomemben člen v preskrbnih verigah, saj zagotavljajo delovanje distribucijske logistike. Njihova vloga je pomembna pri dobavi, saj preskrbne verige postajajo skladno z globalizacijo trga in kompleksnostjo končnih izdelkov vedno bolj kompleksne. V drugem delu naloge je potekala raziskava in številne analize poslovanja distribucijskega centra v Mariboru in v Celju. S pomočjo raziskave in rezultati analiz smo ovrgli obe naši zastavljeni tezi, kajti ugotovili smo, da oba distribucijska centra poslujeta negativno. Glede na negativne rezultate poslovanja obeh centrov smo mnenja, da so potrebni določeni ukrepi za zmanjševanje stroškov v obeh distribucijskih centrih. Zagotovo rešitev ni reorganizacija, kot smo si jo zamislili v naši nalogi, ampak so potrebne manjše spremembe, kot so boljša izkoriščenost skladiščnih prostorov in boljša razporeditev že zaposlenih delavcev glede na obseg dela. Our research topic are two distribution centers from Intereuropa d. d. company which are located in Maribor and Celje. With the help of incurred data from Intereuropa d. d. we made several analyzes which helped us to determined if the reorganization of distribution centers is necessary, with the purpose to lower costs of Intereuropa d. d. company. The reorganization was meant in terms of costs, which distribution centers we need to cut or keep the existing condition. That is why we identified theoretical fundamentals in the first part of the assignment, and determine how important distribution centers are in supply chains, because of their providing of distribution logistics. The distribution center role is significant for the supply, because the supply chains are becoming more complex with its globalization of the market and complexity of final products. In the second part of the assignment numerous analysis took place, including the analysis of management of distribution center in Maribor and Celje. With the help of analysis and the analysis results we refuted both of our pledged thesis. We realize that both distribution centers operate negative and based on those negative results of both centers we recommend certain actions for lowering costs in both distribution centers. Surely the reorganization as proposed in the beginning is not the solution, minor changes are needed. For example utilization of warehouse facilities and better layout of already employed workers based on the scope of work.

This assessment of accounting and auditing practices in Latvia is part of a joint initiative of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to prepare Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC). One of the twelve ROSC modules focuses on Accounting and Auditing (A&A), this assessment addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the accounting and auditing environment that influence the quality of corporate financial reporting and includes a review of both mandatory requirements and actual practice. This is the second A&A ROSC for Latvia. The first one was published in 2005.

Very small enterprises (VSEs) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) represent a broad and heterogeneous segment, often underserved by formal financial institutions. They are generally informal and often family businesses. The financial needs of these enterprises are typically overlooked by “downscaling” banks, which find larger and often more formal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to be a more natural market for their products and services. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are starting to move upmarket to serve SMEs, and in particular, VSEs within this segment. However, they use varying definitions, methodologies and products to do so and to date there has been little research or documentation of their experiences. This report highlights the results of a recent study of the existing practices in Latin America of MFIs serving VSEs, where VSEs are considered to be those businesses with financing needs of between US$7,000 and US$30,000. It is a starting point for an institution considering entering the segment, or for one that finds itself having grown into the segment “organically” but with a view to strengthen its position. It includes several checklists for MFIs interested in expanding upmarket into the VSE space, as well as more detailed discussions and examples of the most relevant points.

The objective of the Customer Management in Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Banking Guide is to share and disseminate critical information for managing the SME client relationship, allowing banks that already serve the SME sector to move beyond lending to better capture the SME Banking opportunity. This Guide leverages IFC s SME Banking Diagnostic framework used to assess SME banking operations, as well as its SME Banking Benchmarking exercise used to analyze good practice business models. In addition, the Guide provides practical examples of customer management focused on SME banking from a number of featured financial institutions. Such examples may serve to highlight a good practice, or may simply serve to illustrate a learning experience. Financial institutions featured in this publication include Bankinter, DBS Bank, Diamond Bank, Garanti Bank, ICICI Bank, Banco Santander, and Türk Ekonomi Bankasi (TEB). Additional SME banking experiences are drawn from a variety of other banks and are cited throughout the text as appropriate. Profitably serving the SME segment requires a tailored customer management approach that will allow banks to answer these four questions: How can banks better understand SME customer needs? How can they match diverse needs with the right offer, service level, and delivery channel? How can customer management be used to maximize the revenue opportunity when servicing this market segment? How can banks effectively manage SME customers across their life-cycle? This guide will address these questions as well as take the reader through the customer life-cycle to target and acquire new SME clients.

This report is the output of the finalize toolkit phase (phase three) for the project sustainability toolkit for transport projects. The overall objective, as defined in the terms of reference, is 'to make development projects more sustainable by reducing the risk of failure of projects attaining their long-term development goals and enhance the prospects for their sustained impact on development ensuring that there is local commitment to longer-term buy-in'. The main deliverable of the project is a project sustainability toolkit, of which this report outlines the final version. This toolkit helps to gauge the potential for the project to be sustainable into the long-term and provide advice to help overcome common barriers to the successful development and implementation of projects. The guidance covers the expected opportunities and constraints related to sustainability. The toolkit is intended to reduce the risk of project failure in terms of sustainable development and enable recipient country clients to incorporate core sustainability principles into transport projects at every stage of project planning, design and delivery. This will improve the prospects for longer-term sustainability and will enhance the long-term impacts of development projects. Task Team Leaders (TTL's) will benefit from additional evidence that supports investments intended to consolidate long-term development, and borrowers will benefit from projects with improved and demonstrable longer-term beneficial impact. The toolkit provides general advice for transport sector investments and is not modally specific. Information on the sub-components of the key sustainability principles has not been included since it was considered that this did not add value or further understanding of the issues.

Sri Lanka's population is still largely rural, nearly 85 percent lives outside of cities. There will probably be rural-to-urban migration in the future, which represents a potential opportunity to m-money providers. People working in cities often wish to repatriate their savings to their rural families conveniently and at a low cost. Income is fairly evenly spread across Sri Lanka s provinces, with the exception of the Western Province where Colombo, the largest city, is situated. Its GDP per capita places Sri Lanka near the average of comparable Southeast Asian countries. Malaysia is clearly an outlier with a considerably higher GDP per capita, but Sri Lanka s GDP is higher than that of the Philippines, where m-money has taken off dramatically. Poverty is less of a problem in Sri Lanka relative to countries like Bangladesh or Cambodia, where GDP per capita is much lower. The key point is that Sri Lanka is at a different stage in its economic development and is unlikely to have the same socioeconomic conditions that made m-money in Kenya accelerate so rapidly.

This paper deals with the regulation of the prices of natural monopoly in Czech Republic namely in the area of distribution of electricity. Monopoly is the sole supplier of the product on the market faces competition from other companies supplying the same or similar product and can sell at higher prices than in the markets of perfect competition. Therefore, there is a need for regulation by the State to ensure an adequate level of profit for manufacturers and sufficient quality of service for customers. In the Czech Republic is responsible for the functions of the electricity regulator Energy Regulatory Institute, which uses method price regulation by the form of allowed revenues. The goal of a specific research conducted by Faculty of Economics and Administration at Masa- ryk University was to identify the theoretical methods that allow the establishment of regulated pri- ces and to analyze factors influencing the amount. The methodology of Energy Regulatory Institute consists in the calculation of allowed costs, depreciations and profit. The base for calculating of depreciation of fixed assets are historical costs, which do not price developments and thus can not create sufficient resources for the reproduction of consumed assets. Similarly, in the calculation of the profit is used regulatory asset base, which represents the residual value of operating assets, taken from the firm‘s accounting for the year. It is obvious that the value of the assets taken from the balance sheet the company does not take into account possible investment opportunities for the company, which forms part of its market value. The result of the research is to propose a model of fair value revaluation, which eliminates the shortcomings of historical costs (of purchase price) and allows included the existing fixed assets in the calculation of allowed revenues and also the present value of its investment opportunities. The model of fair value is preferred also by International accounting standards because brings the accounting near to actually existing market conditions and eliminates the underestimation of business assets and depreciations.

Consumers often lack objective information about product acquisition costs. In such cases, consumers must rely on estimates of acquisition costs in making their choices. The current work examines the influence of mental simulations of product acquisition on estimates of acquisition costs. We suggest that simulations of product acquisition lead estimates to reflect the influence of consumers' current physical states on the experience of a particular cost. Specifically, carrying a heavy burden leads consumers to estimate higher distances to targets when they engage in simulation of walking to targets, but not when they do not engage in such simulation.Simulation can be either deliberate or spontaneous. Deliberate simulation is engaged when consumers intentionally simulate an action. Spontaneous simulation requires particular conditions for its occurrence, but does not require conscious intent. The specific conditions for the occurrence of spontaneous simulation are the availability of situational inputs and that action be possible in the given situation. We support these ideas in a series of studies.Study 1 demonstrates preference shifts that occur as a consequence of participants carrying heavy burdens. Participants in this study shifted their preference from an option located a visible but undefined distance away towards one that was available at their current location. Study 2 supports the theory that this shift occurs as a consequence of alterations in estimates of acquisition costs by showing that burdened participants estimate distances as greater than do unburdened participants. Study 3 provides evidence for the role of mental simulation in producing such changes in estimated acquisition costs by showing that the distance expansion first demonstrated in study 2 occurs when targets are visible, but not when targets are not visible. This result is consistent with the central contention of this dissertation that visibility is critical for spontaneous simulation. Together, the studies support the role of spontaneous simulation in burden leading to distance expansion. Study 4 provides further support for the role of simulation in producing the effects of physical state on estimated acquisition costs by showing deliberate simulation results in similar distance to that of spontaneous simulation. Studies 5 and 6 further demonstrate the dual roles of spontaneous and deliberate simulation on distance expansion. They show that expansion does not occur when targets are not reachable because they are up in the air (study 5). However, deliberate simulation of realistic (climbing - study 5) or unrealistic (flying - study 6) action restores distance expansion in those circumstances, supporting the role of simulation in leading to consideration of physical state in estimated acquisition costs.The final study ties together these results by demonstrating the effects of both spontaneous and deliberate simulation in a single setting. Varying both the availability of conditions supporting spontaneous simulation and instructions for deliberate simulation the study allows an examination of the comparative effects of the two types of simulation and of their potential interaction. The study finds that deliberate simulation may produce effects that are larger than those of spontaneous simulation, but spontaneous simulation does not seem to enhance the effects of deliberate simulation.

The fixed asset theory, when viewed as an investment/disinvestment theory, implies a simple two-parameter control-limit decision rule. The theory is extended to incorporate the stochastic nature of farm revenue. The results show that ongoing uncertainty leads to a widening of the range of inaction because there is a positive value of waiting. The effects of sunk costs, or the divergence of acquisition costs from salvage values, on the degree of investment/ disinvestment irreversibility become more pronounced when uncertainty is present.