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The global transition towards environmentally friendly energy sources plays a major role in addressing both energy security and climate change. Brazil is at the forefront of this transition due to its rich natural resources and increasing investments in biofuels. Therefore, this investigation examines the consumption patterns and interactions between ethanol, primarily sourced from sugarcane, and gasoline within Brazil's energy framework. Ethanol's renewability, reduced environmental impact, and superior combustion characteristics position it as a feasible substitute for traditional fossil fuels. Nonetheless, obstacles like competition for land use and inadequate distribution infrastructure impede its widespread acceptance. This study explores the economic interaction between ethanol and gasoline, focusing on pricing dynamics and regional influences. Using consumer preferences and the accessibility of ethanol, this research identifies a range of price ratios within which consumer preferences shift from gasoline to ethanol in various Brazilian regions. The study also classifies Brazilian states into three distinct ranges based on the ethanol-to-gasoline price ratio in 2023 for a granular analysis of the economic dynamics influencing fuel choice. The research identifies states with competitive and dominant ethanol markets by examining the interplay between ethanol market share, fuel prices, and the adoption of flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) in the country. Lastly, the findings support the importance of regional economic conditions and the influence of price ratios on consumer behavior, highlighting that ethanol's market share does not always correlate with favorable pricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global transition towards environmentally friendly energy sources plays a major role in addressing both energy security and climate change. Brazil is at the forefront of this transition due to its rich natural resources and increasing investments in biofuels. Therefore, this investigation examines the consumption patterns and interactions between ethanol, primarily sourced from sugarcane, and gasoline within Brazil’s energy framework. Ethanol’s renewability, reduced environmental impact, and superior combustion characteristics position it as a feasible substitute for traditional fossil fuels. Nonetheless, obstacles like competition for land use and inadequate distribution infrastructure impede its widespread acceptance. This study explores the economic interaction between ethanol and gasoline, focusing on pricing dynamics and regional influences. Using consumer preferences and the accessibility of ethanol, this research identifies a range of price ratios within which consumer preferences shift from gasoline to ethanol in various Brazilian regions. The study also classifies Brazilian states into three distinct ranges based on the ethanol-to-gasoline price ratio in 2023 for a granular analysis of the economic dynamics influencing fuel choice. The research identifies states with competitive and dominant ethanol markets by examining the interplay between ethanol market share, fuel prices, and the adoption of flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) in the country. Lastly, the findings support the importance of regional economic conditions and the influence of price ratios on consumer behavior, highlighting that ethanol’s market share does not always correlate with favorable pricing.

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The aim of this research is to enhance the competitiveness of Egyptian grape exports and improve access to foreign markets by studying the factors that contribute to their competitiveness. Specifically, the research focuses on examining the competitive advantage of Egyptian grape exports in the global market and identifying the determinants of this advantage in key foreign markets. To achieve this goal, various economic indicators were utilized, including market share and price ratio. Additionally, a statistical model was developed to assess the competitiveness of Egyptian grapes compared to their main competitors in the most significant export markets between 2005 and 2022. The findings reveal that, during the study period from 2020 to 2022, 59.9% of Egyptian grape exports were concentrated in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Russia. However, it was observed that the market shares of Egyptian grapes in the British and Dutch markets declined over time, despite Egypt's comparative price advantage over some competitors in these markets. Furthermore, the market shares of Egyptian grapes also decreased in the Russian market. Overall, this research provides valuable insights into the competitive determinants of Egyptian grape exports and highlights the challenges faced in maintaining and expanding market share in key foreign markets, it was also shown from the competitiveness model that the competition between Egyptian grapes and grapes exported from other countries, which compete with Egypt in the British market, primarily concerns non-price aspects. However, Egypt has a competitive advantage in the efficiency of performing export operations, as well as in the production dates and quality of Egyptian grapes compared to some of its competitors in the Dutch market. The model also revealed that Egypt enjoys a price competitive advantage over some of its competitors in the Russian market. Therefore, the research recommends increasing attention to bilateral agreements and price aspects in both the British and Dutch markets. This will contribute to increasing the penetration of Egyptian grapes into those markets. Additionally, there should be a focus on improving the efficiency of export operations, which will enhance the quality of the product and increase competitiveness in foreign markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: National centralized drug procurement organized by the Chinese government currently represents the largest group purchasing organization worldwide, to establish a reasonable price formation mechanism. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of centralized procurement policy on drug price and price ratio in China. Method: Monthly drug procurement data of public medical institutions were extracted from the national procurement database, including 11 pilot cities and 36 months from January 2018 to December 2020. Centralized procured INNs (International Nonproprietary Names) (n = 25) and their alternative INNs (n = 96) were selected as study samples. Centralized procured INNs were divided into bid-winning and non-winning products according to the bidding results. Drug price, price distribution, and price ratio were measured. Multi-intervention interrupted time series analysis was performed to estimate the policy impacts in two centralized procurement periods. Results: The price of centralized procured INNs showed an immediate drop of 44.57% (β = -0.59, p < 0.001) at the policy implementation, among which bid-winning drugs decreased by 61.71% (β = -0.96, p < 0.001). No significant change in the price level or trends was found for non-winning products and alternative drugs in the first-year procurement period (all p-values > 0.05). During the second-year procurement period, alternative drugs in four therapeutic categories detected significant increases in the price level (all p-values < 0.05). The overall coefficient of variation of price distribution exhibited upward trends after policy implementation. Among the most centralized procured INNs, the price ratio between certificated generics (generics that have passed the consistency evaluation) and original drugs declined significantly after policy intervention (p < 0.05), whereas the price ratio between uncertificated and certificated generics increased significantly (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Chinese government-organized group purchasing resulted in prominent price reduction of bid-winning drugs. The policy observed a short-term "spillover" effect of synergistic price reduction, while the effect wore off after 1-year procurement period. The extremely dispersed price distribution, as well as unreasonable price ratios, requires further effective price regulation means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of designing a new machine or design is a constant need to make decisions in the face of uncertainty: from the design idea, layout, and to the choice of materials and equipment. At the same time, the indicators of reliability and cost, which are refined for a long time at the stage of testing a prototype and under controlled operation, remain virtually unrecorded. It is too expensive and requires considerable time. How can these indicators be taken into account at the design stage, reducing time and costs? In addition, the service and operational characteristics of a metal structural material: chemical composition, short-term, cyclic and long-term strength, ductility, crack resistance - form a multidimensional vector, each of which components separately weakly correlates with the market price of the alloy, which does not directly allow us to estimate the cost of the structure and not allows a priori ranking of alloys according to a comprehensive assessment of value under specific conditions with given parameters of temperature-force load on a given resu a. For the first time such a statement of the problem was formed in our publications cited in the list of references. This research is their further development. The methodology for estimating the relative cost of modern metallic structural materials for given operating conditions (load, temperature, resource) and alloy properties (reduced coefficient of quotation, melting point, specific gravity) is given. On the basis of these estimates and the previously proposed universal generalized diagram of a prof. Grabara, for the first time, they managed to obtain comparative estimates of the cost of metal structures for a wide range of their operating conditions (stresses, temperatures and resource), referred to the unit of operation time. This methodology allows a significant reduction in the level of uncertainty, and can be applied already at the stage of preliminary design of the machine. The approach outlined in the paper opens up good prospects for a deeper feasibility study of engineering solutions at the stage of preliminary machine design. Examples of calculation.

• Using a differential equation for modeling the RW engine with proper accuracy. • Investigating the simultaneous effect of spark timing on performance. • Economic evaluation of the use of this engine as CHP system prime driver using PR. • Suggesting the ranges of appropriate performance conditions and fuel consumption. • Performing double-objective optimization for performance improvement. In this work, a thermodynamic and differential model has been used for the performance improvement of an internal combustion engine. The development of a numerical model with appropriate accuracy, the investigation of spark timing effects, and the potential of using this engine as the primary driver of a combined heat and power system (CHP) using a dimensionless economic parameter called the price ratio (PR) can be as main novelties of this research. PR parameter expresses the ratio of profitability cost to current costs (fuel consumption) and in fact, it is economically suitable in the conditions that this parameter is higher than 1.2. For validation, the current model was compared with finite speed (FS), finite time (FT), and experimental methods. Finally, by performing double-objective optimization, the optimal operating conditions for the engine are suggested. The results show that if the engine works at lower speeds from the viewpoint of the price ratio parameter compared to the viewpoints of efficiency and fuel consumption, it will have better performance conditions. In addition, the results show that the engine with the same spark start angle experiences a lower combustion duration from a price ratio viewpoint than from an efficiency and fuel consumption viewpoint, and in these conditions, the value of the price ratio is higher than 1.4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid systems combining heat pump and gas heater can demonstrate the economic benefits, while their environmental performance is rarely investigated. In this paper, a comprehensive environmental performance investigation has been conducted to reveal the potential for emission reductions. A new environmental impact methodology has been built, and various influencing factors are evaluated. In respect of the climates, the hourly energy consumption emission first increases and then declines, which is the result of multiple effects from the weighting factors of fuel source emissions and each heating sector's performance. Under the operation condition map for the current study, the effects of the target (final) water temperatures, electricity generation emission factor reduction, and price ratios are revealed to be the top 3 heaviest fluctuations for emissions for hourly system operation energy consumption, followed by each heating sector's efficiency enhancements. The environmental impacts due to hourly system operation do not closely follow the hourly energy consumption profile for the effect of climate conditions and can be quite opposite when considering the effect of fuel source price ratios. In addition, the lifetime environmental performance has been examined for typical cities in China. In the cold region, such as Shenyang, the emission due to the natural gas contributor shares more than 46% of the total emissions. For warm cities (Shanghai, Wuhan, and Chengdu), the emission of the natural gas is only responsible for ~ 9% or even less of the total emissions. A switch from R410A (GWP100:1924) to R452B (GWP100:675) can also lead to ~ 11% emission total reductions for city of Shanghai, Wuhan, and Chengdu. It is anticipated that the viewpoints and insights from this study can be beneficial for the engineers, policymakers, scholars, public, and manufactures to maintaining the maximum sustainability and economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing economies need green and renewable energy. Their financial development can reduce energy consumption (through energy-efficient technologies) and replace fossil fuels with renewable ones. Gas turbine engines are widely used in transport and industry. To improve their economic attractiveness and to reduce harmful emissions, including greenhouse gases, alternative fuels and waste heat recovery technologies can be used. A promising direction is the use of alcohol and thermo-chemical recuperation. The purpose of this study is to estimate the economic efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions of an alcohol-fueled regenerative gas turbine engine with thermo-chemical recuperation. The carbon dioxide emissions have been determined using engine efficiency, fuel properties, as well as life cycle analysis. The engine efficiency was maximized by varying the water/alcohol ratio. To evaluate steam fuel reforming for a certain engine, a conversion performance factor has been suggested. At the optimal water/methanol ratio of 3.075 this technology can increase efficiency by 4% and reduce tank-to-wake emission by 80%. In the last 6 months of 2019, methanol prices were promising for power and cogeneration plants in remote locations. The policy recommendation is that local authorities should pay attention to alcohol fuel and advanced turbines to curb the adverse effects of burning petroleum fuel on economic growth and the environment.

Cooling systems have been widely applied in the process industry, which generally falls into two categories: air cooling and water cooling. Despite that both of these cooling types has their own specific advantages, resource consumption, especially energy and water, is inevitable to maintain system operation. Facing with overwhelming challenges in the industry field such as energy and water conservation, given selection of cooling type, it is imperative to take resource consumption and economy effect into account. In this paper, comparison among four different cooling types is carried out, including dry air coolers, spray type air coolers, evaporative air coolers, and circulating cooling water systems, for energy and water consumption and economy performance. Considering the cooling range from 95 °C to 40 °C, under circumstance of different dry bulb temperature and relative humidity, energy and water consumption can be calculated, while annual total cost, as a measure index of economic indication, is compared in the condition of different price ratio of fresh water and industrial electricity likewise. This work contributes to the determination of optimal cooling method, which has instructive significance in actual industrial processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Haskel theory, in this paper the main factors of change in wage ratios of agricultural and non-agricultural labor force are explored. Theoretically, the wage gap between these two sectors is explained by the gap between price and the one between TFP of these two sectors. In recent years, the wage gap between the two sectors has been decreasing in Iran. The international trade model (Haskel model) has been used in this paper and the results reveal that the major factor contributing to wage gap is the price one. The TFP is considered insignificant for wage gap. Mainly, the reason for increasing agricultural product index price, compared to that of non-agricultural index price has been government protection of agricultural products during these years.