Making Visible the Invisible Power of Community

Outlines the need to strengthen the organic infrastructure and culture of rural communities in development work to allow for adaptations that preserve connectedness and enhance social health. Explains Wildflower's methods and tools, with case studies

Circular economy meets building automation

This paper demonstrates the concept of reusing discarded smartphones to connect the end-of-life of e-wastes with the start-of-life of smart buildings. Two control-related and one communication-related case studies have been conducted experimentally to evaluate applicability. Diverse controlled systems, control tasks, and algorithms have been considered. In addition, the sufficiency of communication with external agents has been quantified. The proof-of-concept experiments indicate technical feasibility and applicability to typical tasks with satisfactory performance. As smartphones improve over time, higher computing performance and lower communication latency can be expected, enhancing the prospect of the proposed reuse concept

Experimental implementation of an emission-aware prosumer with online flexibility quantification and provision

Emission-aware and flexible building operation can play a crucial role in the energy transition. On the one hand, building operation accounts for a significant portion of global energy-related emissions. On the other hand, they may provide the future low-carbon energy system with flexibility to achieve secure, stable, and efficient operation. This paper reports an experimental implementation of an emission-aware flexible prosumer considering all behind-the-meter assets of an actual occupied building by incorporating a model predictive control strategy into an existing building energy management system. The resultant can minimize the equivalent carbon emission due to electricity imports and provide flexibility to the energy system. The experimental results indicate an emission reduction of 12.5% compared to a benchmark that maximizes PV self-consumption. In addition, flexibility provision is demonstrated with an emulated distribution system operator. The results suggest that flexibility can be provided without the risk of rebound effects due to the flexibility envelope self-reported in advance

The Nature, Features and Governance of State-owned Energy Enterprises

AbstractThe state-owned energy enterprise, in essence, is a kind of contractual arrangement. In order to maximize national interests, the state delegates executives to operate business in the energy sector by combining energy resources with other resources through a series of contracts. Yet the features of state-owned energy enterprises, such as monopoly, negative externalities, strong asset specificity and high opportunism risks, could give rise to some negative impacts. So, in order to avoid negative impacts, improve governance efficiency and achieve harmony between man and nature, we should improve government regulation system, establish a more efficient board, implement a reasonable operator incentive system, and revise the supervision and constraint mechanisms

A Policy Proposal of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Projection Center

With a series of important administrative plans and instructions, such as such as the Outline Development Plan of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Guangdong Province Three-year Action Plan on The Development in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area(2018-2020), it has become a consensus to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in the Greater Bay area in order to promote legal business environment. Although the intellectual property cooperation of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has a remarkable progress, it still faces some outstanding problems due to the imperfect cooperation platform and mechanism, the difference of system rules among the three regions, and the inconsistency of protection standards and levels among the nine cities in the Pearl River Delta. In this regard, this memorandum provides idea of establishing an Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area intellectual property protection center. In addition, this memorandum discusses the functions of the center, the rights granted, the legislative procedures for its establishment, and the obstacles it may confront. By adopting this proposal, the level of intellectual property rights protection in the Greater Bay Area will be greatly improved. At the same time, it is a good attempt to integrate the judicial and administrative systems of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao

L1 adaptive control for nonlinear and non-square multivariable systems

This research presents development of L1 adaptive output-feedback control theory for a class of uncertain, nonlinear, and non-square multivariable systems. The objective is to extend the L1 adaptive control framework to cover a wide class of underactuated systems with uniform performance and robustness guarantees. This dissertation starts by investigating some structural properties of multivariable systems that are used in the development of L1 adaptive output feedback controllers. In particular, a state-decomposition is introduced for adaptive laws that only depends on the output signals. The existence of the decomposition is ensured by defining a virtual system for underactuated plants. Based on the mathematical findings, we propose a set of output feedback solutions for uncertain underactuated systems. In adaptive control applications, a baseline control augmentation is often preferred, where the baseline controller defines the nominal system response. Adaptive controllers are incorporated into the control loop to improve the system response by recovering the nominal performance in the presence of uncertainties. This thesis provides a solution for L1 output feedback control augmentation. Stability and transient performance bounds are proven using Lyapunov analysis. To demonstrate the benefits of the L1 adaptive controllers we consider a missile system and an inverted pendulum, which are both underactuated systems. Finally, we propose a filter design framework in the frequency domain. A new sufficient condition is presented to ensure stability of the closed loop and the reference systems, which is subsequently used in the optimal filter design. Existing H-infinity optimization techniques are leveraged to address the performance and robustness trade-off issues

The Dialectic Process of Firm Growth: An Empirical Study of Growth of HR service SMEs in Guangzhou City, the People’s Republic of China

How to best understand and facilitate growth of SMEs has been an important and long-standing subject for academics and management practitioners in China and abroad. This dissertation joins this effort, reporting an empirical study on the growth of HR service firms (SMEs) in Guangzhou City, China, which have been playing an increasingly important role in fast economic development of the country. The study aims to gain a better understanding on how and why these service firms were able to grow so as to identify ways to facilitate their growth. To achieve the objectives, this study first reviewed the theories of the growth of the firm, in particular, theory of Penrose (1959), from which research gaps were identified and research questions were raised. Next, using multiple-case (embedded) design, the researcher of the study carried out two phases of empirical research on growth of the HR service SMEs in Guangzhou City. Findings from the research were then thoroughly discussed in view of extant literature on firm growth and conclusions were drawn on the research questions as to how and why these firms in the city were able to grow. Based on the findings, it is concluded in this dissertation that HR service SMEs studied were in dialectical relation with their market (mainly their customers and competitors), with market constantly challenging these SMEs which in turn, continuously taking up and quite often overcoming these market challenges; it is this dialectical process of continuous forming and resolving conflicts between firm capabilities and market demands that led to spiral growth of these SMEs; thus, it could be said that causes of growth were the increase in market demands and the development of firm capabilities; 3 both forces interacted constantly in a dialectical manner to produce forces driving firm growth.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo