Macro-micro feedback links of water management in South Africa : CGE analyses of selected policy regimes

The pressure on an already stressed water situation in South Africa is predicted to increase significantly under climate change, plans for large industrial expansion, observed rapid urbanization, and government programs to provide access to water to millions of previously excluded people. The present study employed a general equilibrium approach to examine the economy-wide impacts of selected macro and water related policy reforms on water use and allocation, rural livelihoods, and the economy at large. The analyses reveal that implicit crop-level water quotas reduce the amount of irrigated land allocated to higher-value horticultural crops and create higher shadow rents for production of lower-value, water-intensive field crops, such as sugarcane and fodder. Accordingly, liberalizing local water allocation in irrigation agriculture is found to work in favor of higher-value crops, and expand agricultural production and exports and farm employment. Allowing for water trade between irrigation and non-agricultural uses fueled by higher competition for water from industrial expansion and urbanization leads to greater water shadow prices for irrigation water with reduced income and employment benefits to rural households and higher gains for non-agricultural households. The analyses show difficult tradeoffs between general economic gains and higher water prices, making irrigation subsidies difficult to justify.Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Water Supply and Systems,Water and Industry,Water Conservation

Study on segmented-rotor switched reluctance motors with different rotor pole numbers for bsg system of hybrid electric vehicles

© 1967-2012 IEEE. This paper investigates the design principles and performance optimization for segmented-rotor switched reluctance motors (SRSRMs) with different rotor pole numbers for belt-driven starter generators of hybrid electric vehicles. For the design principles, several constraints are derived for the numbers of stator and rotor poles, the dimensions, and the number of winding turns. Two SRSRMs with 16/10 and 16/14 stator/rotor poles are presented according to these principles. For the performance optimization, the two motors are optimized individually for maximizing the torque. To evaluate the effect of different segmented-rotor numbers, the overall performances of the two SRSRMs are investigated and compared. It is found that the 16/14 SRSRM has higher flux linkage and static torque. The 16/14 SRSRM exhibits higher torque and lower torque ripple at low speed operation, whereas at high speed, the 16/10 SRSRM performs better in terms of torque and power densities. Compared with the 16/14 SRSRM, the 16/10 SRSRM has higher final steady speed under the same startup condition. The 16/10 SRSRM can achieve higher steady speed under starter mode and provide higher generated power under braking mode. Moreover, the 16/10 SRSRM exhibits higher efficiency in the most feasible speed range, especially in high speed range, and it has wider high-efficiency area. Finally, a 16/10 SRSRM is prototyped and tested to validate the simulation results

Modified yupingfeng formula for the treatment of stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is a very  common disease of respiratory system. An increasing number of clinical  trials on Yupingfeng formula in the management of stable COPD have been performed. However, the evidence base for it remains unknown. This review aims at assessing the efficacy, and safety of modified Yupingfeng  formula in the treatment of stable COPD through a systematic review of all available randomized controlled trials. Materials and Methods: Literature retrieval was conducted using four English databases (CENTRAL, PubMed, EMBASE, and ISI Web of Science), and four Chinese databases (CBM, CNKI, VIP, and WANFANG), from respective inception to January 2013, and supplemented with a manual search. Review authors independently extracted the trial data, and assessed the quality of each trial. Methodological quality was assessed by Cochrane risk of bias and Jadad’s scale. The following outcomes were evaluated: (1) lung function; (2) 6-minute walk distance (6MWD); (3) effective rate; (4) serum levels of IgA, IgG and IgE; and (5) adverse events. Data were analyzed using STATA 12.0 software.Results: A total of nine studies involving 660, stable COPD patients were identified. Patients from all studies included in this review were randomized to receive Yupingfeng formula combined with Western medications in comparison with Western medications. In general, the methodological quality of the included trials was poor. The results of this systematic review indicates that, compared with Western medications alone, the use of Yupingfeng formula, if combined with Western medications could significantly improve FEV1 (WMD = 0.30L; 95%CI: 0.19, 0.42), FEV1/FVC ratio (SMD = 0.69; 95%CI: 0.48, 0.91), 6MWD (WMD = 31.73m; 95% CI: 19.29, 44.17), and effective rate (RR = 1.24; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.41), and increase the serum levels of IgA (WMD = 0.25; 95%CI: 0.16, 0.34) and IgG (WMD = 1.10; 95%CI: 0.53, 1.68), but no difference was found in the serum IgE levels (WMD = 0.47; 95%CI: －0.32, 1.27) between the two groups. No serious adverse events were reported.Conclusions: Within the limitations of this systematic review, we may conclude that compared with Western medications alone, Yupingfeng formula, when combined with Western medications can provide more benefits for patients with stable COPD, without any serious adverse reactions being identified. However, these benefits need to be further confirmed through high-quality prospective placebo-controlled trials that should be strictly conducted in accordance with methodological principles and procedures.Key words: Yupingfeng formula; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Systematic revie

Heat transfer performance of LCS porous copper with different structural characteristics

© 2018 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland. Porous metals are highly efficient media for active cooling and thermal management. However, the working fluid requires high pumping power to flow through the porous metals. This paper investigated the effect of structural characteristics (porosity, pore size and Cu particle size) on the heat transfer performance of porous Cu manufactured by Lost Carbonate Sintering (LCS). The heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of porous Cu samples with porosity from 0.48 to 0.78, pore size from 250-1500 μm and Cu particle size from 75 to 841 μm were measured under the onedimensional forced convection condition using water. For all the samples with different pore sizes and Cu particle sizes, the optimum heat transfer coefficient was observed at a porosity between 0.6 and 0.7 and the pressure drop decreased with increasing porosity. The effect of pore size on heat transfer coefficient was not pronounced while pressure drop decreased with decreasing pore size. Samples with large Cu particles (841 μm) had higher optimum heat transfer coefficients and lower pressure drops. The coefficient of performance (CoP), which can be used to describe the overall heat transfer performance, increased with increasing porosity, decreasing pore size and increasing Cu particle size

Direct Measurements of the Branching Fractions for Inclusive K±K^\pm and Inclusive Semileptonic Decays of D+D^+ and D0D^0 Mesons

With singly-tagged $\bar D$ samples selected from the data collected at and around 3.773 GeV with the BESII detector at the BEPC collider, we have measured the branching fractions for the inclusive $K^\pm$ decays of $D^+$ and $D^0$ mesons, which are $BF(D^+\to K^-X) = (24.7 \pm 1.3 \pm 1.2)$, $BF(D^+\to K^+X) = (6.1 \pm 0.9 \pm 0.4)$, $BF(D^0\to K^-X) = (57.8 \pm 1.6 \pm 3.2)$ and $BF(D^0\to K^+X) = (3.5 \pm 0.7 \pm 0.3)$, respectively. We have also measured the branching fractions for the inclusive semileptonic decays of $D^+$ and $D^0$ mesons to be $BF(D^+ \to e^+ X)=(15.2 \pm 0.9 \pm 0.8)$ and $BF(D^0 \to e^+ X) =(6.3 \pm 0.7 \pm 0.4)$. These yield the ratio of their partial widths to be $\Gamma(D^+ \to e^+X)/\Gamma(D^0 \to e^+X)=0.95 \pm 0.12 \pm 0.07$.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Measurements of branching fractions for inclusive K0~/K0 and K*(892)+- decays of neutral and charged D mesons

Using the data sample of about 33 pb-1 collected at and around 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider, we have studied inclusive K0~/K0 and K*(892)+- decays of D0 and D+ mesons. The branching fractions for the inclusive K0~/K0 and K*(892)- decays are measured to be BF(D0 to K0~/K0 X)=(47.6+-4.8+-3.0)%, BF(D+ to K0~/K0 X)=(60.5+-5.5+-3.3)%, BF(D0 to K*- X)=(15.3+- 8.3+- 1.9)% and BF(D+ to K*- X)=(5.7+- 5.2+- 0.7)%. The upper limits of the branching fractions for the inclusive K*(892)+ decays are set to be BF(D0 to K*+ X)<3.6% and BF(D+ to K*+ X) <20.3% at 90% confidence level

Investigating the effects of steel slag powder on the properties of self-compacting concrete with recycled aggregates

This study introduced both steel slag and recycled aggregate aiming to improve the sustainability performance of self-compacting concrete (SCC). Study focused on investigating the effects of steel slag powder on the properties of self-compacting concrete with recycled aggregate (SCRAC)

Understanding IoT Security Through the Data Crystal Ball: Where We Are Now and Where We Are Going To Be

Inspired by the boom of the consumer IoT market, many device manufacturers, new start-up companies and technology behemoths have jumped into the space. Indeed, in a span of less than 5 years, we have experienced the manifestation of an array of solutions for the smart home, smart cities and even smart cars. Unfortunately, the exciting utility and rapid marketization of IoTs, come at the expense of privacy and security. Online and industry reports, and academic work have revealed a number of attacks on IoT systems, resulting in privacy leakage, property loss and even large-scale availability problems on some of the most influential Internet services (e.g. Netflix, Twitter). To mitigate such threats, a few new solutions have been proposed. However, it is still less clear what are the impacts they can have on the IoT ecosystem. In this work, we aim to perform a comprehensive study on reported attacks and defenses in the realm of IoTs aiming to find out what we know, where the current studies fall short and how to move forward. To this end, we first build a toolkit that searches through massive amount of online data using semantic analysis to identify over 3000 IoT-related articles (papers, reports and news). Further, by clustering such collected data using machine learning technologies, we are able to compare academic views with the findings from industry and other sources, in an attempt to understand the gaps between them, the trend of the IoT security risks and new problems that need further attention. We systemize this process, by proposing a taxonomy for the IoT ecosystem and organizing IoT security into five problem areas. We use this taxonomy as a beacon to assess each IoT work across a number of properties we define. Our assessment reveals that despite the acknowledged and growing concerns on IoT from both industry and academia, relevant security and privacy problems are far from solved. We discuss how each proposed solution can be applied to a problem area and highlight their strengths, assumptions and constraints. We stress the need for a security framework for IoT vendors and discuss the trend of shifting security liability to external or centralized entities. We also identify open research problems and provide suggestions towards a secure IoT ecosystem

Measurement of \psip Radiative Decays

Using 14 million psi(2S) events accumulated at the BESII detector, we report first measurements of branching fractions or upper limits for psi(2S) decays into gamma ppbar, gamma 2(pi^+pi^-), gamma K_s K^-pi^++c.c., gamma K^+ K^- pi^+pi^-, gamma K^{*0} K^- pi^+ +c.c., gamma K^{*0}\bar K^{*0}, gamma pi^+pi^- p pbar, gamma 2(K^+K^-), gamma 3(pi^+pi^-), and gamma 2(pi^+pi^-)K^+K^- with the invariant mass of hadrons below 2.9GeV/c^2. We also report branching fractions of psi(2S) decays into 2(pi^+pi^-) pi^0, omega pi^+pi^-, omega f_2(1270), b_1^\pm pi^\mp, and pi^0 2(pi^+pi^-) K^+K^-.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Measurements of J/ψJ/\psi and ψ(2S)\psi(2S) decays into ΛΛˉπ0\Lambda \bar{\Lambda}\pi^0 and ΛΛˉη\Lambda \bar{\Lambda}\eta

Using 58 million $J/\psi$ and 14 million $\psi(2S)$ events collected by the BESII detector at the BEPC, branching fractions or upper limits for the decays $J/\psi$ and $\psi(2S) \to \Lambda \bar{\Lambda}\pi^0$ and $\Lambda \bar{\Lambda}\eta$ are measured. For the isospin violating decays, the upper limits are determined to be ${\cal B}(J/\psi \to \Lambda \bar{\Lambda}\pi^0)<6.4\times 10^{-5}$ and ${\cal B}(\psi(2S) \to \Lambda \bar{\Lambda}\pi^0)<4.9\times 10^{-5}$ at the 90% confidence level. The isospin conserving process $J/\psi \to \Lambda \bar{\Lambda}\eta$ is observed for the first time, and its branching fraction is measured to be ${\cal B}(J/\psi \to \Lambda \bar{\Lambda}\eta)=(2.62\pm 0.60\pm 0.44)\times 10^{-4}$, where the first error is statistical and the second one is systematic. No $\Lambda \bar{\Lambda}\eta$ signal is observed in $\psi(2S)$ decays, and ${\cal B}(\psi(2S) \to \Lambda \bar{\Lambda}\eta)<1.2\times 10^{-4}$ is set at the 90% confidence level. Branching fractions of $J/\psi$ decays into $\Sigma^+ \pi^- bar{\Lambda}$ and $\bar{\Sigma}^- \pi^+ \Lambda$ are also reported, and the sum of these branching fractions is determined to be ${\cal B}(J/\psi \to \Sigma^+\pi^- \bar{\Lambda} + c.c.)=(1.52\pm 0.08\pm 0.16)\times 10^{-3}$.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures. Phys.Rev.D comments considere