Automated prediction system of household energy consumption in cities using web crawler and optimized artificial intelligence

The supply of electrical energy is critical to convenient and comfortable living. However, people consume a large amount of energy, contributing to an energy crisis and global warming, and damaging some ecological cycles. Residential electricity consumption has greater elasticity than industrial and business consumption; it therefore has high energy-saving potential. This work establishes an automated platform, which provides information about residential electricity consumption in each city in Taiwan. Machine learning was used to forecast future residential electricity demand. A nature-inspired optimization method was applied to enhance the accuracy of the best machine learner, yielding an even better hybrid ensemble model. Performance measures indicate that the resulting model is accurate and provides effective information for reference. An automatic web-based system based on the model was combined with a web crawler and scheduled to run automatically to provide information on monthly residential electricity consumption in each county and city. By providing energy consumption information across the country, power providers and government can discuss policy and set different goals for energy use. The results of this study can facilitate the early implementation of energy-saving and carbon emission-reducing in cities and aid utility companies in establishing energy conservation guidelines.     

Oil Demand and Stocks

Current data of world oil demand. This includes international bunkers and refinery fuel. Updated on a monthly basis. Current data of oil demand from counties such as Canada, the United States of America, Japan, OECD Europe, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Republic of Korea, and Turkey. Updated on a monthly basis. Current data for crude oil and refined product stocks in Canada, Chile, Mexico, the United States (Western Hemisphere), France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and Other Europe (Europe), Japan, Republic of Korea, Other Pacific (Asia‐Pacific), and Total OECD (Table 12.1) Current data for refined product stocks in the OECD Western Hemisphere, OECD Europe, OECD Asia‐Pacific and Total OECD. Products include gasoline, diesel and gasoil, and heavy fuel oil. Updated on a monthly basis (Table 12.2).     

高分子材料导热性能影响因素研究进展

介绍了高分子材料导热性能影响因素研究进展，重点阐释了聚合物基体的结构特性（链结构、分子间相互作用、取向、结晶度等）、导热填料（种类、含量、形态、尺寸等）以及制备方法等对高分子材料导热性能的影响。     

臭氧氧化-循环喷淋法处理钨钼选矿废水

采用臭氧氧化-循环喷淋法去除钨钼选矿废水中COD,研究了pH值、臭氧流量、循环频率对COD去除效果的影响。结果表明: 废水COD去除率随pH值、臭氧流量、循环频率增大而增加,在pH值为10、臭氧流量3.0 L/min、循环频率4.0次/min条件下,氧化120 min后废水COD含量由131 mg/L降至11.5 mg/L,COD去除率达91.2%,满足《污水综合排放标准》(GB 8978-1996)一级标准。与O₂、NaClO处理废水COD的对比试验结果表明,循环喷淋法结合O₃表现出较好的COD去除效果。     

Microstructural characteristics of as-forged and β-air-cooled Zr–2.5Nb alloy

Multiple characterization and analysis techniques including electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), electron channeling contrast (ECC) imaging, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and microhardness test were jointly employed to investigate microstructural characteristics such as local composition, morphology, grain boundary characteristics and interphase orientation relationship of a forged Zr–2.5Nb alloy before and after β-air-cooling. Results show that the as-forged specimen is composed of equiaxed and lamellar α grains and continuous net-like β-Zr films. After the β-air-cooling, the microstructure of the specimen is featured by basket-weave Widmanstätten structure, in which the inter-α-plate second phases are nanoscale β-Zr. Analyses for crystallographic orientations reveal that the Burgers relationship has been strictly followed during the β→α cooling. Compared to the as-forged specimen, the hardness of the β-air-cooled specimen is higher, which could be attributed to the decreased structural sizes of both α and β phases, and the increased fraction of high angle boundaries as well.     

Effect of neodymium substitution on crystalline orientation,microstructure and electric properties of sol-gel derived PZT thin films

Pb(Nd_xZr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃ (PNZT) (x = 0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%) thin films were prepared by sol-gel process to investigate the effects of neodymium substitution on crystalline orientation, microstructure and electric properties of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis showed that PNZT films with Nd doping concentration below 3% exhibited dense perovskite structure with (100) preferred orientation. The average grain size of PNZT films decreased as the Nd substitution increased. The maximum dielectric constant, remnant polarization and minimum coercive field were obtained in 2% Nd-doped PZT films. Fatigue resistance was also improved significantly with 2% Nd dopant.     

Linking entrepreneurial orientation to project success

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is a strategic posture of an organization, and it is related to basic policies and practices for the development of entrepreneurial actions looking for creating competitive advantages. This study develops and tests a model of the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and project success in Brazilian context. As quantitative research, a survey was used to collect data. A sample of 100 valid answers from project practitioners was treated through the structural equation modeling method. As research implications, the main result points out the positive correlation between the entrepreneurial orientation and the project success, contributing to the development of this research subject and helping to minimize the gap in the literature that addresses the relationship between project success and EO. In practical terms, understanding that innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, autonomy and competitive aggressiveness (the dimensions of the EO) can contribute to project success and can also indirectly impact on organizational performance, could help organizations get competitive advantage when developing correlate factors. Finally, the results suggest that practices of project management can be aligned to the firm's entrepreneurial orientation to enable firms to attain better results in their projects and generate a competitive advantage. On other hand, given the proportion of the impact of EO on project success (20.3%) identified in this study, it is critical that project management professionals expand their horizon to recognize other factors that affect project success.     

Ex post demand information sharing between differentiated suppliers and a common retailer

We consider ex post demand information sharing in a two-echelon supply chain in which two suppliers sell differentiated products through a common retailer. We model three scenarios of information sharing to characterise the conditions under which information sharing may benefit or hurt different players: (1) no supplier is informed; (2) only one supplier is informed; and (3) both suppliers are informed. We find that the retailer may voluntarily share the low demand information when the product differentiation and demand magnitude satisfy certain conditions. In contrast, the retailer has no incentive to share the high demand information, even though this information benefits the suppliers. To achieve information sharing, we propose a side payment mechanism, which allows benefitted players to subsidise hurtful players. Finally, we extend our model by considering a situation where the suppliers have limited capacity and may invest to ramp up production capacity to satisfy a high demand.     

天然橡胶期货市场回顾及后市展望

2019年天然橡胶期货市场起起落落,沪胶价格继续低位震荡。2020年天然橡胶供大于求的局面仍不会发生根本性改变,由极端天气引发的天然橡胶市场行情变动可能会减小,汽车行业可能会在政策支持下再次振兴,尤其重型卡车市场会成为亮点,轮胎企业继续寻求扩大出口。2020年上半年,天然橡胶期货市场可能还会受到2019年异常天气和病害等的余波作用,胶价会达到一个相对的高点,价格底部抬升,但很难出现持续性上涨的市场行情。2020年下半年,随着天然橡胶产量的季节性增长,胶价可能会再次回落。     

Domestic demand-side response with heat pumps: controls and tariffs

ABSTRACT

Electric heat pumps feature prominently in projected energy transitions in the UK and elsewhere. Owing to their high electricity consumption, heat pumps are viewed as important targets for demand-side response (DSR). Findings are presented from a field trial of a new control system that aims to optimize heat pump performance, including under time-varying tariff conditions. The trial involved monitoring 76 properties with heat pumps, but without dedicated heat storage; 31 of these received the control system. Interviews were conducted with a subsample of 12 participants. The controller successfully evened out electricity demand over the day (reducing the evening peak), but this was associated with increased late night and daytime temperatures. Interview participants reported some disturbance owing to overnight heating and noise, as well as usability issues with the controller interface and hardware. These issues present risks to the future acceptability of such systems. While the system delivered short-term demand reductions successfully, longer-term demand shifting risked causing unacceptable disturbance to occupants. Future control systems could overcome some of the issues identified in this pioneering trial through more effective zoning, using temperature caps or installing dedicated heat storage, but these may either limit the available flexibility or be challenging to achieve.