Leakage current and surface discharge phenomena : effect on tracking and morphological properties of LLDPE-natural rubber compounds

Polymeric insulators are widely used for high voltage outdoor insulating application due to their substantial advantages compared to the porcelain and glass insulators. Although polymer materials have been proven good, research on development of new polymerbased materials is still on going since the benefits of using polymeric materials are not yet utilised to their full potential. In this work, a new formulated thermoplastic elastomer materials that are composed of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and natural rubber (NR) filled with different loadings of alumina trihydrate (ATH) fillers is presented. A surface tracking and erosion test is conducted to investigate the characteristics of leakage current on the material surface under the influence of wet contaminated conditions. A computer-based leakage current monitoring system is developed to monitor the leakage current waveform pattern as well as its frequency spectrum. The scanning electron microscope is used to investigate the morphological properties of the materials before and after the tracking test

Nongrey radiation effects on the boundary layer of an absorbing gas over a flat plate

Nongrey radiation effects on boundary layer of absorbing gas over flat plat

Revenue-productive income tax structures and tax reforms in emerging market economies - evidence from Bulgaria

Using a household budget survey for 1992, The author shows the poor revenue performance and distributional impact of Bulgaria's personal income tax system. He explores the implications for revenue and income distribution of two alternative tax systems - a flat tax and a progressive but simpler three-brackets tax system. He demonstrates that simpler tax structures with lower tax rates could achieve at least equal revenue and distributional objectives and are superior in terms of efficiency and equity. (The findings are robust when Bulgaria's significant tax evasion is included). But tax changes since 1992 have, if anything, moved Bulgaria even further from a simple income tax system: the number of rates and brackets increased from 7 to 10, and the levels of exemption remain unchanged. (Complex, higher rates complicate administration and enforcement and provide incentives for tax evasions. And in the alternative systems the author explores, the poor are protected with higher exemptions.) Fortunately, the country's personal income tax structure began to move toward less nominal progressivity after Bulgaria's 1997 tax reform program. The tax rate in thetop income bracket was reduced from 52 percent to 40 percent, the number of tax brackets was halved, and the exemption level was increased 20 percent (reducing tax burdens on the poor).Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Regional Governance,Tax Policy and Administration,Economic Theory&Research,Governance Indicators,Economic Theory&Research,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Tax Policy and Administration

Distribution of income and the income tax burden in Bulgaria

Using the 1992 Bulgarian household budget survey, the authors analyze the distribution of income and of the income tax burden by income and expenditure class and by rural-urban sector. They find: 1) Low income inequality (although that is changing rapidly). 2) A progressive income tax system. The poor (the lowest two-income decile) pay only 1.4 percent of their per capita income in income tax; the rich (the top decile) pay nearly 6 percent. In-kind income and expenditures are excluded from taxation. 3) The urban sector pays proportionately more in taxes than the rural sector. For example, urban households pay 5.3 percent of their per capita income in income tax, whereas the rural sector pays 2.4 percent. 3) Income tax contributes significantly to reducing income inequality at both the national and sectoral (rural-urban) level, as the poor pay a smaller share of taxes than their share of national income. These results hold whether income or expenditure is used as an indicator of economic well-being. The authors caution that as in-kind income becomes monetized and the economy becomes more market-oriented, the system will become less progressive and urban-rural differences will diminish. They contend that the bias toward higher urban taxes is justified to some extent by the fact that urban households benefit more from government services than rural households do.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Income,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Income,Inequality,Governance Indicators

Wireless Health Monitoring using Passive WiFi Sensing

This paper presents a two-dimensional phase extraction system using passive WiFi sensing to monitor three basic elderly care activities including breathing rate, essential tremor and falls. Specifically, a WiFi signal is acquired through two channels where the first channel is the reference one, whereas the other signal is acquired by a passive receiver after reflection from the human target. Using signal processing of cross-ambiguity function, various features in the signal are extracted. The entire implementations are performed using software defined radios having directional antennas. We report the accuracy of our system in different conditions and environments and show that breathing rate can be measured with an accuracy of 87% when there are no obstacles. We also show a 98% accuracy in detecting falls and 93% accuracy in classifying tremor. The results indicate that passive WiFi systems show great promise in replacing typical invasive health devices as standard tools for health care.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, conference pape

On Euclidean Norm Approximations

Euclidean norm calculations arise frequently in scientific and engineering applications. Several approximations for this norm with differing complexity and accuracy have been proposed in the literature. Earlier approaches were based on minimizing the maximum error. Recently, Seol and Cheun proposed an approximation based on minimizing the average error. In this paper, we first examine these approximations in detail, show that they fit into a single mathematical formulation, and compare their average and maximum errors. We then show that the maximum errors given by Seol and Cheun are significantly optimistic.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, Pattern Recognitio

CAUSALITY AND DYNAMICS OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND OUTPUT: EVIDENCE FROM NON-OECD ASIAN COUNTRIES

This article examines the short-run and long-run causal relationship between energy consumption and output in six non-OECD Asian developing countries. Standard time series econometrics is used for this purpose. Based on cointegration and vector error correction modeling, the empirical result shows a bi-directional causality between energy consumption and income in Malaysia, while a unidirectional causality from output to energy consumption in China and Thailand and energy consumption to output in India and Pakistan. Bangladesh remains as an energy neutral economy confirming the fact that it is one of the lowest energy consuming countries in Asia. Both the generalized variance decompositions and the impulse response functions confirm the direction of causality in these countries. These findings have important policy implications for concerned countries. Countries like China and Thailand may contribute to the fight against global warming directly implementing energy conservation measures whereas India and Pakistan may focus on technological developments and mitigation policies. For Malaysia, a balanced combination of alternative policies seems to be appropriate.Energy Conservation, Cointegration, Error Correction Model, Generalized Variance Decompositions, Generalized Impulse Response Functions

Neural Network-Based Li-Ion Battery Aging Model at Accelerated C-Rate

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are widely used in electric vehicles (EVs) because of their high energy density, low self-discharge, and superior performance. Despite this, Li-ion batteries’ performance and reliability become critical as they lose their capacity with increasing charge and discharging cycles. Moreover, Li-ion batteries are subject to aging in EVs due to load variations in discharge. Monitoring the battery cycle life at various discharge rates would enable the battery management system (BMS) to implement control parameters to resolve the aging issue. In this paper, a battery lifetime degradation model is proposed at an accelerated current rate (C-rate). Furthermore, an ideal lifetime discharge rate within the standard C-rate and beyond the C-rate is proposed. The consequence of discharging at an accelerated C-rate on the cycle life of the batteries is thoroughly investigated. Moreover, the battery degradation model is investigated with a deep learning algorithm-based feed-forward neural network (FNN), and a recurrent neural network (RNN) with long short-term memory (LSTM) layer. A comparative assessment of performance of the developed models is carried out and it is shown that the LSTM-RNN battery aging model has superior performance at accelerated C-rate compared to the traditional FNN network

Joint Loss (General Average), a Study of Emirati Law, York-Antwerp Rules and English Law

The rules concerning general average are amongst the oldest in the maritime field. They have their basis in the fact that, during a voyage, the ship, cargo and freight form part of a common venture. The principle underlying the rules is simple. If the common venture comes under threat during a voyage - for instance, because the ship springs a leak and is in danger of sinking - then extraordinary sacrifices and expenditure necessary to prevent the loss of the venture must be apportioned according to the value of each respective interest. The rules on general average have developed over time and the main legal source of the rules today is the so called York- Antwerp Rules. Emirate has adopted the York-Antwerp Rules into its Maritime Code. It is proposed to discuss in this article the principle of general average; and to show how far it has been established, and what rules based on it have been laid down by judicial authority