Development of an IoT Based Smart Campus: Wide Shuttle Tracking System

Vehicle tracking systems are a versatile technology which enables commuters to determine the location of the buses in real-time. Bus operators can also deploy it for fleet management purposes. In this work, an integrated, embedded GPS-GSM vehicle tracking system is designed and implemented. The application enables passengers to view the location of bus shuttles in real-time. It also allows bus managers to ascertain the driver behaviour and observe the past and present locations of the bus shuttle. The system has been designed to provide more functionalities with some modifications and additional hardware, such as Accident detection, Fire detection systems and Fuel monitoring. The location of buses can be accessed by the users either using the SMS request option or logging into the mobile application developed for this purpose. Upon receipt of a location request, the tracking system sends feedback which includes both the latitude and longitude coordinates of the vehicle and also a link that enables the display of the bus location of a google map. The location is also logged onto a server managed by the bus operators to monitor the bus activities

Banking and the macroeconomy in China: A banking crisis deferred?

The downturn in the world economy following the global banking crisis has left the Chinese economy relatively unscathed. This paper develops a model of the Chinese economy using a DSGE framework with a banking sector to shed light on this episode. It differs from other applications in the use of indirect inference procedure to test the fitted model. The model finds that the main shocks hitting China in the crisis were international and that domestic banking shocks were unimportant. However, directed bank lending and direct government spending was used to supplement monetary policy to aggressively offset shocks to demand. The model finds that government expenditure feedback reduces the frequency of a business cycle crisis but that any feedback effect on investment creates excess capacity and instability in output

Regulatory arbitrage, shadow banking and monetary policy in China

Regulatory arbitrage is a persuasive explanation for the rapid growth in shadow bank credit. In China, the distortions caused by government support to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and preferential lending by state-owned banks have created an environment for the development of shadow banks that lend to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The imposition of a loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) cap of 75% in 2009–2015 gave an additional boost to the growth of shadow bank credit by providing an incentive for conventional banks to bypass regulation and lend to SMEs via the shadow banks. The result is that shadow bank credit varied contra-cyclically to regular commercial bank credit in response to monetary policy shocks, dampening the effectiveness of monetary policy during the period of the LDR cap. This paper presents a model of the Chinese economy using a DSGE framework that accommodates a banking sector which isolates the effects of lending to SMEs by shadow banks. The model which is estimated by the method of indirect inference, allows for bank and shadow bank lending to affect the credit premium on private investment. We show that in general regular bank credit and shadow bank credit varies pro-cyclically with monetary policy but varies contra-cyclically when a LDR cap is imposed. The findings have implications for the policy of de-leveraging followed by China

Shadow banks, banking policies and China's macroeconomic fluctuations

This paper develops a model of the Chinese economy using a DSGE framework that accommodates a banking sector and money. The model is used to shed light on the period of the Global Financial Crisis. It differs from other applications in the use of Indirect Inference to estimate and test the model. Officially mandated bank lending and government spending were used to supplement monetary policy to aggressively offset shocks to demand. This paper examines the efficacy of monetary policy in terms of the reduction in the frequency of severe economic slowdowns. We find that monetary policy can be used more vigorously to stabilise the economy, making direct banking controls and fiscal activism unnecessary. A nominal GDP targeting monetary policy is the most efficient, compared with a conventional Taylor Rule, a Friedman rule or a price level targeting rule

China’s financial crisis: the role of banks and monetary policy

This paper develops a model of the Chinese economy using a DSGE framework that accommodates a banking sector and money. The model is used to shed light on the period of the recent period of financial crisis. It differs from other applications in the use of indirect inference to estimate and test the fitted model. We find that the main shocks that hit China in the crisis were international and that domestic banking shocks were unimportant. Officially mandated bank lending and government spending were used to supplement monetary policy to aggressively offset shocks to demand. An analysis of the frequency of crises shows that crises occur on average about every halfcentury, with about a third accompanied by financial crises. We find that monetary policy can be used more vigorously to stabilise the economy, making direct banking controls and fiscal activism unnecessary

Banking and the macroeconomy in China: A banking crisis deferred?

The downturn in the world economy following the global banking crisis has left the Chinese economy relatively unscathed. This paper develops a model of the Chinese economy using a DSGE framework with a banking sector to shed light on this episode. It differs from other applications in the use of indirect inference procedure to test the fitted model. The model finds that the main shocks hitting China in the crisis were international and that domestic banking shocks were unimportant. However, directed bank lending and direct government spending was used to supplement monetary policy to aggressively offset shocks to demand. The model finds that government expenditure feedback reduces the frequency of a business cycle crisis but that any feedback effect on investment creates excess capacity and instability in output

An Adaptable, Portable Microarray Reader for Biodetection

We have developed an inexpensive portable microarray reader that can be applied to standard microscope slide-based arrays and other array formats printed on chemically modified surfaces. Measuring only 19 cm in length, the imaging device is portable and may be applicable to both triage and clinical settings. For multiplexing and adaptability purposes, it can be modified to work with multiple excitation/emission wavelengths. Our device is shown to be comparable to a commercial laser scanner when detecting both streptavidin-biotin and antibody interactions. This paper presents the development and characterization of a handheld microarray imager and directly compares it with a commercial scanner

Service Level Factors Associated with Cervical Screening in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Primary Health Care Centres in Australia

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have significantly higher cervical cancer incidence and mortality than other Australian women. In this study, we assessed the documented delivery of cervical screening for women attending Indigenous Primary Health Care (PHC) centres across Australia and identified service-level factors associated with between-centre variation in screening coverage. We analysed 3801 clinical audit records for PHC clients aged 20–64 years from 135 Indigenous PHC centres participating in the Audit for Best Practice in Chronic Disease (ABCD) continuous quality improvement (CQI) program across five Australian states/territories during 2005 to 2014. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to identify service-level factors associated with screening, while accounting for differences in client-level factors. There was substantial variation in the proportion of clients who had a documented cervical screen in the previous two years across the participating PHC centres (median 50%, interquartile range (IQR): 29–67%), persisting over years and audit cycle. Centre-level factors explained 40% of the variation; client-level factors did not reduce the between-centre variation. Screening coverage was associated with longer time enrolled in the CQI program and very remote location. Indigenous PHC centres play an important role in providing cervical screening to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Thus, their leadership is essential to ensure that Australia’s public health commitment to the elimination of cervical cancer includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. A sustained commitment to CQI may improve PHC centres delivery of cervical screening; however, factors that may impact on service delivery, such as organisational, geographical and environmental factors, warrant further investigation

A Cloud-Based Intelligent Toll Collection System for Smart Cities

Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) systems may be adopted by city managers to combat the problems of long vehicular queues, fuel wastage, high accident risks, and environmental pollution that come with the use of traditional or manual toll collection systems. In this paper, an intelligent system is developed to eliminate long vehicular queues, fuel wastage, high accident risks, and environmental pollution in a smart city based on seamless interconnections of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), and web and mobile applications that run on an Internet of Things (IoT)-Enabled cloud platform. A ZigBee WSN is designed and implemented using an Arduino UNO, XBee S2 radios, an XBee Shield, and a Seeduino GPRS Shield. For vehicle owners to make toll payments, view toll historical data, and get toll news feeds, a web application and a mobile application are designed and implemented based on Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Javascript and Hyper Text Pre-processor (PHP). The mobile application is deployed using an Android platform. A cloud platform was also developed to provide business logic functionalities by using PHP as a scripting language, and MySQL as the database engine driver. Deployment of the developed ETC system in smart and connected communities will drastically minimize the challenges of long vehicular queues, fuel wastage, high accident risks, and environmental pollution in urban centers

Bioelectrochemical conversion of CO2 to value added product formate using engineered Methylobacterium extorquens

The conversion of carbon dioxide to formate is a fundamental step for building C1 chemical platforms. Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 was reported to show remarkable activity converting carbon dioxide into formate. Formate dehydrogenase 1 from M. extorquens AM1 (MeFDH1) was verified as the key responsible enzyme for the conversion of carbon dioxide to formate in this study. Using a 2% methanol concentration for induction, microbial harboring the recombinant MeFDH1 expressing plasmid produced the highest concentration of formate (26.6 mM within 21 hours) in electrochemical reactor. 60 ??M of sodium tungstate in the culture medium was optimal for the expression of recombinant MeFDH1 and production of formate (25.7 mM within 21 hours). The recombinant MeFDH1 expressing cells showed maximum formate productivity of 2.53 mM/g-wet cell/hr, which was 2.5 times greater than that of wild type. Thus, M. extorquens AM1 was successfully engineered by expressing MeFDH1 as recombinant enzyme to elevate the production of formate from CO2 after elucidating key responsible enzyme for the conversion of CO2 to formate