A photovoltaic (PV)-based multi-generation system applied to a hotel building is considered, and a comfortaware design and assessment framework is proposed, in which occupant thermal and visual comfort requirements are explicitly incorporated into the evaluation of energy, economic, techno-economic, and environmental indicators. Moving beyond conventional frameworks in which occupant comfort is either neglected, treated as a secondary assessment criterion, or simplified through static indoor-condition assumptions, thermal comfort (represented by the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV)) and visual comfort (expressed through indoor illuminance level (Lux)) are introduced as active operational variables. The integrated system supplies electricity, hydrogen, and methanol as a green fuel while utilizing captured carbon dioxide, thereby establishing a coupled energy-fuel-carbon pathway. The adopted methodology integrates one-dimensional parametric analysis with two-dimensional heatmap visualization to reveal both the separate and interactive effects of thermal and visual comfort targets on system sizing and performance. The results show that comfort requirements substantially affect the system size, with progressively larger capacities observed at higher Lux and lower PMV levels. For the considered case-study, which is a 100-unit hotel building complex in Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA, the variation ranges are from 1130 kW to 1515 kW for PV capacity, from 987 kW to 1324 kW for proton exchange membrane electrolyzer (PEMEC) capacity, from 161 kW to 215 kW for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) capacity, and from 6842 m3 to 9202 m3 for the hydrogen storage tank volume. The captured CO2 also changes between 96.0 and 128.7 ton/year. Moreover, from the economic perspective, an optimum is identified at PMVset = 0 and Luxset = 300 lx, where the system achieves a maximum benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) of 2.54 and a minimum payback period (PBP) of 6.04 years. Taken together, the investigation demonstrates that visual comfort has a greater influence on electricity demand, component sizing, and captured CO2, whereas thermal comfort more strongly governs economic performance.
This study examines the impact of product market threats on the cost of equity capital. Utilizing product market fluidity as a proxy for firm-level competitive threats, we find that heightened competition is associated with a lower cost of equity. We identify operating efficiency and investment efficiency as key channels through which this negative relationship operates. This negative association is more pronounced among firms with severe agency problems, suggesting that competition serves as an external governance mechanism. Furthermore, our results reveal that firm-level competition has an incremental negative effect on the cost of equity, even after controlling for industry-level competition. Overall, our findings highlight that product market competition encourages managerial stewardship, effectively reducing slack and enhancing operational efficiency.
Among the most remote places on Earth, the Hawaiian Islands rely heavily on local water resources. Therefore, a deep understanding of rainfall variability is critical to ensure the habitability and sustainability of life on the archipelago. While climate variability has been studied at interannual and interdecadal scales, less is known at shorter scales. Here, we investigate the impact of the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) on rainfall in Hawai'i by leveraging data from various sources, utilizing a newly released high-resolution precipitation dataset. Our results indicate that rainfall increases significantly during MJO active phases, especially on the islands' windward sides, while suppressed phases lead to drier conditions. Other climatic variables are also affected by the MJO, with active phases characterized by cooler temperatures, higher humidity, and stronger winds from a predominantly northeasterly direction. These impacts appear linked to the Rossby waves generated by the MJO propagating in the central North Pacific and to a strengthening of the local Hadley circulation during active MJO phases. These findings offer meaningful insights that may benefit stakeholders across the state by improving understanding of short-term climate variability.
El Ni & ntilde;o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is experiencing changes, including an increasing occurrence of central Pacific (CP)-type ENSO and weakening of intensity, with mechanisms still under debate. Previous studies of subsurface turbulent mixing (ky) revealed close correlations between its interannual variability (k'y ) and ENSO evolution and its importance on CP-type ENSO. However, how to adequately represent k'y in climate models and how it modulates ENSO variability remain unclear. Here, a k'y model is first established by the singular value decomposition (SVD) method using outputs from a 40-yr simulation of high vertical resolution. We then incorporate it into an improved intermediate coupled model (ICM) of ENSO simulation and prediction. When k'y is incorporated into the ICM, the standard deviation of the Ni & ntilde;o-3.4 index is reduced by 0.5 degrees C compared with the original ICM with constant ky; the center of maximum in the interannual sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) shifts westward by 20 degrees longitude, favoring the emergence of CP-like ENSO. SSTA budget analysis revealed that the advection reduction determines the ENSO amplitude weakening and that vertical diffusion, which is intensified in the CP while suppressed in the eastern Pacific (EP), dominates the westward shift of ENSO pattern. These findings improve our understanding of the impact of k' y on ENSO variability, which may further help improve ENSO simulation by identifying k'y as a potential cause for the long-standing underestimation of CP-like ENSO and overestimation of ENSO amplitude in climate models.
Religiosity and spirituality are central to the lives of Filipinos, yet limited research has examined their role in well-being. Although traditionally viewed as distinct constructs, religiosity and spirituality are deeply intertwined among Filipinos, with religious practice serving as a pathway for cultivating spiritual experience. Given the established role of spiritual experience in well-being, daily spiritual experience may represent a key mechanism through which religious practice translates into greater life satisfaction, yet research directly examining this mediating pathway remains limited. A further concern is that widely used spirituality measures, including the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES; Underwood and Teresi, Annals of Behavioral Medicine 24:22–33, 2002), have been criticized for containing items that overlap with mental and social health outcomes, raising tautological questions about observed associations. The present study addressed both concerns. A theistic 5-item version of the DSES was validated among Filipino Catholics and demonstrated superior psychometric fit over the full 13-item version. Using this validated measure, the study examined whether private religious practices predict life satisfaction and whether daily spiritual experience mediates this relationship in a sample of 1,189 Filipino Catholics (Mage = 18.86, SD = 4.67). Results showed that private religious practices positively predicted life satisfaction, with daily spiritual experience serving as a significant mediator. These findings suggest that private religious practices enhance life satisfaction by fostering an experiential sense of closeness to God that is distinct from general psychological well-being, while also providing a psychometrically robust measure of theistic spirituality for future research among the Filipino faithful.
