The efficiency of private and public schools in urban and rural areas: moving beyond the development goals

Data from the Young Lives study are used to evaluate the efficiency of education systems in four low and middle income countries: Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. A meta‐frontier variant of data envelopment analysis is used to assess the relative performance of each country's system, and, within each country, to evaluate the impact of public and private schooling, and of urban and rural location. Comparisons are drawn between the four countries; the results indicate that in no country does the educational system perform uniformly badly or well. Conditioning on the inputs available, rural areas are often indicative of higher levels of efficiency, thus suggesting a number of implications for policy.     

The short- and long-run efficiency of energy,precious metals,and base metals markets: Evidence from the exponential smooth transition autoregressive models

The aim of this paper is to investigate the long and short-run relationship between spot and futures prices of the energy, precious metals, and base metals markets. We analyze daily data from January 1985 to February 2019. The empirical findings based on the cointegration test, which follows a nonlinear process, suggest that the spot prices of energy and metals assets have long-run relationships with their futures prices. Nonparametric Granger causality test results also indicate bi-directional causality among futures and spot prices. These findings indicate that the energy and metals markets are informationally efficient in the sense of Fama (1970).     

一种新型回路电阻测试仪的研究与设计

针对传统低压回路电阻测试仪只能在被测设备停电时使用的一大限制,本文提出并设计了一种新型低压回路电阻测试仪。该仪器可在低压设备运行状态下对其回路电阻进行测量,在保证测量精度的前提下减少了设备停电率,大大提高了工作效率。     

A signal adaptive diffusion filter for video coding: Mathematical framework and complexity reductions

In this paper we combine video compression and modern image processing methods. We construct novel iterative filter methods for prediction signals based on Partial Differential Equation (PDE) based methods. The mathematical framework of the employed diffusion filter class is given and some desirable properties are stated. In particular, two types of diffusion filters are constructed: a uniform diffusion filter using a fixed filter mask and a signal adaptive diffusion filter that incorporates the structures of the underlying prediction signal. The latter has the advantage of not attenuating existing edges while the uniform filter is less complex. The filters are embedded into a software based on HEVC with additional QTBT (Quadtree plus Binary Tree) and MTT (Multi-Type-Tree) block structure. In this setting, several measures to reduce the coding complexity of the tool are introduced, discussed and tested thoroughly. The coding complexity is reduced by up to 70% while maintaining over 80% of the gain. Overall, the diffusion filter method achieves average bitrate savings of 2.27% for Random Access having an average encoder runtime complexity of 119% and 117% decoder runtime complexity. For individual test sequences, results of 7.36% for Random Access are accomplished.     

Design and experimental investigation of the high efficiency 1.5 W/4.2 K pneumatic-drive G-M cryocooler

The development of a high cooling power and high efficiency 4.2 K two stage G-M cryocooler is critically important given its broad applications in low temperature superconductors, MRI, infrared detector and cryogenic electronics. A high efficiency 1.5 W/4.2 K pneumatic-drive G-M cryocooler has recently been designed and developed by ARS. The effect of expansion volume rate and operation conditions on the cooling performance has been experimentally investigated. A typical cooling performance of 1.5 W/4.2 K has been achieved, and the minimum temperature of the second stage is 2.46 K. The steady input power of the compressor at 60 Hz is 6.8 kW, while the operation speed of the rotary valve is 30 rpm. A maximum cooling power of 1.75 W/4.2 K has been obtained in test runs.     

High recoverable energy storage density and large energy efficiency simultaneously achieved in BaTiO3–Bi(Zn1/2Zr1/2)O3 relaxor ferroelectrics

Relaxor ferroelectrics have attracted much attention as electric energy storage materials for intermittent energy storage because of their high saturated polarization, near-zero remnant polarizations, and considerable dielectric breakdown strength (BDS). Despite the numerous efforts, the dielectric energy storage performance of relaxor ferroelectric ceramics is incomplete or unsatisfactory. The enhancement of recoverable energy storage density W_rec usually accompanies with the sacrifice of discharge-to-charge energy efficiency η; therefore, it is an important issue to achieve high recoverable W_rec and large efficiency η simultaneously. In this work, the (1-x)BaTiO₃-xBi(Zn_1/2Zr_1/2)O₃ (abbreviated as BT-100xBZZ, 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.20) ferroelectric ceramics were prepared using the conventional solid-state reaction method. The phase structure, microstructural morphology, dielectric and ferroelectric properties, relaxation behaviors, and energy storage properties of BT-BZZ ceramics were investigated in detail. X-ray powder diffraction, dielectric spectra, and ferroelectric properties confirm the transformation of tetragonal phase for normal ferroelectrics (BT) to pseudo-cubic phase for relaxor ferroelectrics (BT-8BZZ). A high recoverable energy storage density W_rec of 2.47 J/cm³ and a large energy efficiency η of 94.4% are simultaneously achieved in the composition of BT-12BZZ, which presents typical weakly coupled relaxor ferroelectric characteristics, with an activation energy E_a of 0.21 eV and a freezing temperature T_f of 139.7 K. Such excellent energy storage performance suggests that relaxor ferroelectric BT-12BZZ ceramics are promising dielectric energy storage materials for high-power pulsed capacitors.     

An integrated approach to analysing the cost efficiency of postal networks

An integrated approach to measure the cost efficiency of the postal network of Universal Service Provider is proposed. An integrated approach enables the measurement of cost efficiency for delivery and non-delivery postal network units. The proposed approach is verified and tested on the postal network of the selected provider and the results were derived by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results show that the main sources of inefficiency are inadequate allocation of resources relative to the network units. In addition, the study indicates that economies of scale have a positive impact on the efficiency of postal network units.     

内热型超声雾化溶液再生系统最优内热量的研究

基于质量守恒、能量守恒定律，建立了内热型超声雾化溶液再生系统（IH-UARS）的再生性能预测模型并进行了充分的实验验证，通过研究不同内热量下IH-UARS的再生性能及其变化规律，寻求系统所需的最佳内热量并明确其可能的影响因素。结果表明：IH-UARS系统存在最优的内热量范围，使其再生系统性能最佳；所需最优内热量随着再生溶液流量增大呈显著的对数增长，但受空气流量的影响较弱；在该研究中的标准工况下，IH-UARS所需最优内热量约为275~350 W。此外研究发现：内热量的增长有益于促进初始浓度较高的溶液进一步浓缩再生，如当IH-UARS中内热量增至800 W时，其初始浓度为36%的溶液比24%的溶液浓度增量指标改善幅度高37%。研究所得结果可对提高溶液再生性能及经济性提供积极参考。     

An analytical model for optimizing the performance of graphene based silicon Schottky barrier solar cells

In this paper, a model taking into account the effects of carrier loss mechanisms has been developed. The model simulates the photovoltaic properties of the graphene/n-type silicon Schottky barrier solar cells (G/n-Si_SBSC), and it can reproduce the experimentally determined parameters of the G/n-Si_SBSC. To overcome the low efficiencies of G/n-Si_SBSC, their performances have been optimized by modifying the work function of graphene and Si properties, accounted for variation of its thickness and doping level. The obtained results show that the work function of graphene has the major impact on the device performance. Also, the temperature dependence of the G/n-Si_SBSC performance is investigated.     

黑龙江省节水增粮行动(2012—2015年)实施方案

文章通过对黑龙江省高效节水现状,存在问题的分析,结合黑龙江省高效节水发展的支撑能力,阐述黑龙江省节水增粮目标、任务及总体布局,为黑龙江省2012—2015年节水增粮实施提供依据。