China’s Electricity Market Reform and Power Plants Efficiency

In the past three decades, Chinese electricity industry has experienced a series of regulatory reforms serving different purposes at different stages. In 2002, the former vertically integrated electricity utility - the State Power Corporation (SPC) – was divested and the generation sector was separated from the transmission and distribution networks in an effort to improve production efficiency. In this paper we study the impact of the reform on efficiency of fossil-fired power plants using plant-level data during 2000-2008. Our results from the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and panel regressions show that: 1) the total factor productivity (TFP) growth mainly comes from technological change; 2) the technical efficiency of previously SPC-managed power plants is converging to that of better-performing independent power producers (IPPs); 3) capacity utilization and unit size are significant factors affecting changes in technical efficiency and the pattern of converging technical efficiency between the two kinds of power plants; 4) most plants operate at increasing returns to scale indicating further cost savings could be achieved through increasing output.Efficiency, DEA, Malmquist Index, China, Electricity, Industrial Organization, Productivity Analysis, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, D24, L11, L51, L94, L98,

Differential effects of script system acquisition and social immersion experience on face perception

Informelle Berichte zeigten größere Amplituden der durch Gesichter ausgelösten N170 Komponente im Ereigniskorrelierten Potenzial (EKP) bei asiatischen als bei kaukasischen Probanden. Als mögliche Ursache vermutete ich unterschiedliche Erfahrungen mit logographischen bzw. alphabetischen Schriftsystemen (Schriftsystem-Hypothese) oder die verstärkte Exposition mit unbekannten Gesichtern während der Immersion in eine neue soziale oder ethnische Umgebung (soziale Immersions-Hypothese). Zur Überprüfung dieser Hypothesen führte ich zwei kulturvergleichende Studien mit Erwachsenen bzw. Kindern durch. In Studie 1 untersuchte ich einheimische Chinesen und nicht-chinesische Auswärtige in Hongkong und deutsche Einheimische und chinesische Auswärtige in Berlin. Die Auswärtigen an beiden Orten zeigten größere N170 Amplituden auf Gesichter als die Einheimischen. Außerdem zeigten Deutsche, die erst kurze Zeit in Berlin lebten ähnliche Amplituden wie langjährige Einheimische. Insgesamt unterstützt Studie 1 die soziale Immersions-Hypothese, dass die Immersion in eine neue ethnische Umgebung zu einer Vergrößerung der N170 führt. Studie 2 untersuchte die Schriftsystem-Hypothese bei chinesischen und deutschen Erstlesern am Ende der ersten oder zu Beginn des zweiten Schuljahres an ihrem jeweiligen Heimatort. Die Ergebnisse unterstützen die Schriftsystem-Hypothese, dass chinesische Kinder eine größere N170 auf Gesichter zeigen als deutsche. Insgesamt konnte die vorliegende Dissertation zwei neue Einfluss-Faktoren auf das Gesichterverarbeitungs-System nachweisen, das erworbene Schriftsystem (logographische versus alphabetisch) und die Erfahrung sozialer Immersion in eine neue ethnische Umgebung. Diese Effekte zu ganz unterschiedlichen Zeitpunkten der Entwicklung (Kindheit vs. junges Erwachsenen-Alter) zeigen, dass das Gesichterverarbeitungs-System über lange Zeit seine Plastizität behält.Informal reports have shown larger face-elicited N170 component of event-related potential (ERP) in Asians than Caucasians participants. I proposed that different experience with logographic versus alphabetic scripts (script system hypothesis) or by exposure to abundant novel faces during the immersion into a new social and/or ethnic environment (social immersion hypothesis) as a possible cause. To test these hypotheses, I conducted two cross-cultural ERP studies with adults and Children. In Study 1, I examined Chinese locals and non-Chinese foreigners in Hongkong, and German locals and Chinese foreigners in Berlin. It turned out that the foreigners in both locations showed larger N170 amplitudes to faces than the locals. In addition, Germans who had only lived in Berlin for a short time showed similar face N170 amplitudes as long-term Berlin residents. In sum, Study 1 supports the social immersion hypothesis that immersing into a new ethnic environment drives an increase of face N170. Study 2 investigated the scripts system hypothesis in Chinese and German early readers assessed at the end of the first-grade or at the beginning of the second grade in their respective home towns. The findings support the script system hypothesis that Chinese children showed larger face N170 amplitudes than German children. Overall, the present thesis demonstrated two new influencing factors on the face processing system, the acquired script system (logographic vs. alphabetic) and the social immersion experience in a new ethnic environment. More specifically, learning to read a visually complex logographic Chinese script or immersing into an other-ethnic social environment facilitates early perceptual processing of faces. These effects acquired at different stages of development (early childhood versus young adulthood) show that the face processing system retains its plasticity over a long period of time

Using X+V to construct a non-proprietary speech browser for a public-domain SpeechWeb

A SpeechWeb is a collection of hyperlinked speech applications that are distributed over the Internet. Users access the speech applications through remote browsers, which accept human-voice-input and return synthesized-voice-output. In previous research, a new architecture (LRRP) has been proposed, which is ideally suited for building a Public-Domain SpeechWeb. However, a non-proprietary speech browser is needed for this architecture. In this thesis, we have solved several limitations of X+V, a programming language for developing Multimodal applications, and we have used X+V to build a viable Public-Domain SpeechWeb browser. Our browser has the following properties: real-time human-machine speech interaction; ease of installation and use; acceptable speech-recognition accuracy in a suitable environment; no cost, non-proprietary, ease of distribution; use of common communication protocol---CGI; ease of creation of speech applications; possibility to deploy on mobile devices.Dept. of Computer Science. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2006 .M31. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, page: 0360. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2006

Residential Energy Consumption in Urban China

Residential energy consumption (REC) is the second largest energy use category (10%) in China and urban residents account for most of the REC. Understanding the underlying drivers of variations of urban REC thus helps to identify challenges and opportunities and provide advices for future policy measures. This paper applies the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) to a decomposition of China’s urban REC during the period of 1998-2007 at disaggregated product/activity level using data collected from a wide range of sources. Our results have shown an extensive structure change towards a more energy-intensive household consumption structure as well as an intensive structure change towards high-quality and cleaner energy such as electricity, oil, and natural gas, which reflects a changing life style and consumption mode in pursuit of a higher level of comfort, convenience and environmental protection. We have also found that China’s price reforms in the energy sector have contributed to a reduction of REC while scale factors including increased urban population and income levels have played a key role in the rapid growth of REC. We suggest that further deregulation in energy prices and regulatory as well as voluntary energy efficiency and conservation policies in the residential sector should be promoted.Residential Energy Consumption, Index Decomposition Analysis (IDA), China, Consumer/Household Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q32, Q43,

Experimental investigation on performance of fabrics for indirect evaporative cooling applications

© 2016 Indirect evaporative cooling, by using water evaporation to absorb heat to lower the air temperature without adding moisture, is an extremely low energy and environmentally friendly cooling principle. The properties of the wet channel surface in an indirect evaporating cooler, i.e. its moisture wicking ability, diffusivity and evaporation ability, can greatly affect cooling efficiency and performance. Irregular fibres help to divert moisture and enlarge the wetted area, thus promoting evaporation. A range of fabrics (textiles) weaved from various fibres were experimentally tested and compared to Kraft paper, which has been conventionally used as a wet surface medium in evaporative coolers. It was found that most of the textile fabrics have superior properties in moisture wicking ability, diffusivity and evaporation ability. Compared with Kraft paper, the wicking ability of some fabrics was found to be 171%–182% higher, the diffusion ability 298%–396% higher and evaporation ability 77%–93% higher. A general assessment concerning both the moisture transfer and mechanical properties found that two of the fabrics were most suitable for indirective evaporative cooling applications