The literature investigates the relation between savings and interest rate mainly for household sector, but in recent decades households ceased to be the main source of savings in the economy. We try to identify how the savings of different sectors respond to the interest rate change using the SVAR methodology. We focus on Poland and generalize the results for other European economies. We find that although the household savings rate tends to rise after an increase of interest rate, the corporate savings simultaneously fall, inducing a negative conditional correlation between them. The responses of savings rate of general government and foreign savings are diverse (although the former usually declines after an interest rate increase) and does not seem to be related to factors like the membership in the currency union or the level of public debt. We also check the existence of the ‘crowding-out’ effects and conclude it only applies in the case of government savings crowding out household savings.

Electronic reverse auctions (e-RAs) are considered to be an effective tool for negotiating tender prices and achieving cost savings. Furthermore, if multicritera evaluation is used, it can be expected that e-RAs will also contribute to achieving benefits in other areas, e.g. helping to minimize life-cycle costs. This study aims to analyse the mutual relationships between selected e-RA variables. More specifically, correlation analysis is applied to explore real e-RA data representing public tenders for construction work. This study’s findings reveal that the correlations examined are generally weak or very weak. Furthermore, it has been found that the value of correlation coefficients varies depending on the type of structure, and that public tenders are usually evaluated solely on the basis of the criterion of the lowest bid price. Recommendations for public authorities in using e-RAs in the role of the buyer are also provided at the end of this paper.

The article is devoted to topical issues of energy saving management of a business organization.

The concept and essence of saving are considered. Based on the systematization of the totality of

manifestations of saving energy, the following types are distinguished: economic, ecological, ecological-

economic, reputation and social. External and internal factors of saving energy in a business

organization are identified, which reflect the conditions of its operation in the context of saving

energy. It is determined that energy efficiency barriers, which are proposed to be divided into technical-

economic, organizational-behavioral and cognitive, characterize the energy saving process in

terms of restraining factors in improving the efficiency of fuel and energy resources, reflect specific

obstacles within the energy saving process in a particular business organizations and are of an

intra-organizational nature. It is determined that to improve energy saving processes in a business

organization the use cycles of continuous development, in particular, the Deming cycle is advisable.

For the purposes of energy management, the use an appropriate business model that determines

the order of formation of the economic advantage of the entity through energy savings and reflects

a set of solutions that characterize the process of creating value for stakeholders are advisable.

Based on the formalization of the business model of energy efficiency of the business organization,

the use of an saving energy program aimed at removing barriers to energy efficiency and the impact

on internal energy saving factors, as they are the levers that a business organization can influence to

improve energy efficiency, is proposed.

Obtaining a pure product by mixing together raw materials, so as to carry out a chemical reaction at high selectivity, is a difficult part of manufacturing chemical products. How can we test reactors and mixers to ensure the efficient use of energy?

The study attempts to link the descriptive economics with the
theoretical model of permanent income and life cycle hypothesis (PILCH)
to shed some light on a low private savings rate for Polish households.
These may be explained by the households' belief that the public pension
are a collateral to borrow against, which could discourage the buffer
stock effect. The study comprises two research fields: 1) the estimation
of so called augmented wealth, and, 2) the marginal propensity to
consume (MPC) out of different types of wealth with the permanent income
model. The mean augmented wealth (i.e. net wealth plus public pension
wealth) per household in PLN amounted to 705 thousands, consisting of
public pension wealth of 388 thousands and net wealth of 415 thousands.
The model perfectly matches the augmented wealth Lorenz curve. The
average MPC out of all types of wealth reaches 10% on average, ranging
6-20%, with a negative MPC to wealth correlation, and 60% of
hand-to-mouth households. The explanation for this perfect match may
stem from a high wage growth (also public pension contributions wedge)
that that builds the public pension wealth. The Ricardian-type
households may then mentally account the future pensions as a collateral
(fiduciary money) for current high MPC, which may implicate crowding out
their propensity to save for retirement privately.

The most power consuming part in the vapor compression cycle (VCC) is the gas compressor. Heating the refrigerant under constant volume after the compressor increases the condenser pressure, which consequently increases the cooling rate of the VCC. This study examined the influence of heating different refrigerants, i.e. R143a, R22, and R600a on the cooling rate of the VCC. Four experiments have been performed: the first experiment is a normal VCC, i.e. without heating, while in the second, third, and fourth experiments were carried out to raise the temperature of the refrigerant to 50°C, 100°C, and 150°C. It has been found that heating raises the refrigerant pressure in VCC and thereby improves the refrigerant’s mass flow rate resulting in an improvement in the cooling power for the same compressor power. Heating the refrigerant after the mechanical compressor increases the temperature of the condenser as well as the temperature of the evaporator when using refrigerant R134a, which prevents the refrigeration cycle to be used in freezing applications, however using refrigerant R22 or refrigerant R600a promotes the heated VCC to be used in freezing applications. Refrigerant R600a has the lowest operating pressure compared to R134a and R22, which promotes R600a to be used rather than R134a and R22 from a leakage point of view.

The impact of harmonic distortions on power grids is a major issue in contemporary power networks as a result of the extensive application of non-linear loads. The purpose of this article is to explore the problem of harmonic distortion in power grids and its impact on the elements of the power grid, such as cable lines and transformers. The Schaffner PQS software product was used in this study to model power grids. New techniques for modeling power grids and finding technical solutions that meet the IEEE 519-2014 standard were introduced. The study finds that harmonic distortion can lead to an additional heat load being placed on cable lines and reduces the power available to transformers, which can decrease their rated power. The application of modern software reduces the time and complexity of calculations, and the availability of software solutions for limiting harmonic distortion simplifies the creation of solutions that meet this standard. Using the methods presented in the study, engineering solutions can be improved, the reliability of electrical systems can be increased, and the loss of electrical energy can be reduced. This can enhance efficiency for design engineers and technical specialists involved in the operation of power grids.

Smart farming is about managing a farm using modern information and communication techniques in order to increase the efficiency and quality of plant and animal production and to optimise human labour inputs. It is an inseparable part of a sustainable agricultural economy, where energy-saving and low-emission solutions are of particular importance, e.g. in livestock construction. Animal buildings are one of the main building elements of a farm. The paper presents the use of modern solutions that may result in lower energy consumption, and thus lower operating costs of the building. They also reduce the consumption of natural resources and the emission of pollutants, and ensure animal welfare and safety of the operators’ work. Rational use of energy depends, among others, on from the used insulation materials for the construction of livestock buildings, technical equipment, i.e. lighting, heating, ventilation, as well as zootechnical devices. The profitability of livestock production can also be supported by the use of solar, wind, water and biomass energy. Photovoltaic cells, solar collectors, wind turbines, heat pumps and agricultural biogas plants are used for this purpose.

The paper presents a method for improving the lime production process by increasing the efficiency of the lime slurry transport that occurs in it. The aim of the study was to reduce the energy demand of the pump installed in the discharge line. The presented solution consists of applying an additive called deflocculant to the transported slurry in order to reduce its viscosity while increasing the concentration of solids content. The deflocculant applied to the slurry is composed of waste material from the lime slaking process and an environmentally neutral chemical substance in the form of sodium-water glass. The rheological studies conducted confirm the positive effect of the selected deflocculant on the properties of the slurry tested. As a result of the analysis, it has been shown that the proposed solution has a substantial effect on reducing the friction factor of the transported slurry, thus reducing the energy consumption in the investigated process.

The article proposes a methodology for the formation of a combined model of the equilibrium values of pricing and the volume of electricity production, taking into account green and traditional sources of electricity production on the example of Ukraine. In accordance with the projected price and volume of electricity production in 2021, a model for redistributing electricity sources were considered, taking into account the minimization of budgetary resources and the risk of electricity production with appropriate restrictions in the production of various types of electricity and their impact on minimizing the price for the end user.
The studies have shown that important factors in the formation of electricity prices are indicators of the cost and volume of production, distribution and transportation of electricity to consumers, which largely depends on the formation and further development of the energy market in Ukraine. Also, the redistribution of the volumes of traditional and non-traditional electricity in the common “pot” is of great importance while minimizing risks and budgetary constraints. Balancing the system for generating electricity from various sources will help not only optimize long-term electricity prices and minimize tariffs for the end user, but also allow planning profit in the form of long-term market return on investment.
The analysis of the results showed that the optimal distribution of energy production makes it possible to obtain energy resources in the required volume with lower purchase costs and with minimal risk.

Current networks are designed for peak loads leading to low utilization of power resources. In order to solve this problem, a heuristic energy-saving virtual network embedding algorithm based on the Katz centrality (Katz-VNE) is proposed. For solving an energy-saving virtual network embedding problem, we introduce the Katz centrality to represent the node influence. In order to minimize the energy consumption of the substrate network, the energy-saving virtual network embedding problem is formulated as an integer linear program, and the Katz-VNE is used to solve this problem. The Katz-VNE tries to embed the virtual nodes onto the substrate nodes with high Katz centrality, which is effective, and uses the shortest paths offering the best factor of bandwidths to avoid the hot nodes. The simulation results demonstrate that the long-term average energy consumption of the substrate network is reduced significantly, and the long-term revenue/cost ratio, the acceptance rate of virtual network requests, and the hibernation rate of substrate nodes as well as links are improved significantly.

CropSyst (Cropping Systems Simulation) is used as an analytic tool for studying irrigation water management to increase wheat productivity. Therefore, two field experiments were conducted to 1) calibrate CropSyst model for wheat grown under sprinkler and drip irrigation systems, 2) to use the simulation results to analyse the relationship between applied irrigation amount and the resulted yield and 3) to simulate the effect of saving irrigation water on wheat yield. Drip irrigation system in three treatments (100%, 75% and 50% of crop evapotranspiration – ETc) and under sprinkler irrigation system in five treatments (100%, 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20% of ETc) were imposed on these experiments. Results using CropSyst calibration revealed-that results of using CropSyst calibration revealed that the model was able to predict wheat grain and biological yield, with high degree of accuracy. Using 100% ETc under drip system resulted in very low water stress index (WSI = 0.008), whereas using 100% ETc sprinkler system resulted in WSI = 0.1, which proved that application of 100% ETc enough to ensure high yield. The rest of deficit irrigation treatments resulted in high yield losses. Simulation of application of 90% ETc not only reduced yield losses to either irrigation system, but also increased land and water productivity. Thus, it can be recommended to apply irrigation water to wheat equal to 90% ETc to save on the applied water and increase water productivity.

The presence of water, food and energy crises, both at the global and regional levels, as well as their deterioration under conditions of climate change, with an insufficient level of technical condition of existing irrigation systems, increase the strategic importance of irrigation as the guarantor of the agricultural sector sustainable development.
This makes it necessary to increase, foremost, energy and overall (technical, technological, economic, and environmental) efficiency of the closed irrigation network of irrigation systems. In this regard, the complex that includes organisational-technological, technical, and resource-saving groups of measures was developed. Estimation of energy and overall efficiency of the closed irrigation network of irrigation systems at the implementation of developed complex were executed on the example of the agricultural enterprise located in the Petropavlovsk district of the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine. For this purpose, machine experiment based on a use of the set of optimisation, forecasting and simulation models was implemented, including the model of climatic conditions, the model of water regime and water regulation technologies, as well as the model of crop yields on reclaimed lands.
According to the obtained results, established that implementation of the complex reduces the consumption of irrigation water by 2.2–30.7% and electricity consumption by 12.9–38.2%. The rate of specific costs decreases from 1.6 to 1.32–1.47, and the coefficient of environmental reliability increases by 5.6–16.7%. At the same time, the profitability index increases from 1.07 to 1.75–2.57, and the discounted payback period decreases from 18 to 8–5 years.

This paper deals with the legal aspects of saving life at sea by the Maritime Search and Rescue Service (SAR Service). Depending on the situation, it is possible to provide assistance to a ship in distress at sea and to people on board, either from the sea by another ship, or from the land side, i.e. from the coast by specially prepared services. The effective functioning of the SAR organizational system determines the effectiveness of the SAR action in terms of the number of people saved from danger at sea. In order to provide assistance, SAR services around the world performs distress monitoring, communication, coordination, as well as search and rescue tasks, including the pro-vision of medical advice, initial medical assistance or medical evacuation, through the use of public and private resources, including associated aircraft. The tasks of the SAR services include organizing disembarkation of rescued people.

The multiply-accumulator (MAC) unit is the basic integral computational block in every digital image and digital signal processor. As the demand grows, it is essential to design these units in an efficient manner to build a successful processor. By considering this into account, a power-efficient, high-speed MAC unit is presented in this paper. The proposed MAC unit is a combination of a two-phase clocked modified sequential multiplier and a carry-save adder (CSA) followed by an accumulator register. A novel two-phase clocked modified sequential multiplier is introduced in the multiplication stage to reduce the power and computation time. For image blurring, these multiplier and adder blocks are subsequently incorporated into the MAC unit. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed design reduced the power consumption by 52% and improved the computation time by 4% than the conventional architectures. The developed MAC unit is implemented using 180 nm standard CMOS technology using CADENCE RTL compiler, synthesized using XILINX ISE and the image blurring effect is analyzed using MATLAB.