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The purpose of this study is to establish a new temperature set for characterizing the frictional temperature rise (FTR) of disc brakes. The FTR produced by braking is an important factor which directly affects the tribological properties of disc brakes. Presently, most existing researches characterize the FTR only by several static parameters such as average temperature or maximum temperature, which cannot reflect accurately the dynamic characteristics of temperature variation in the process of braking. In this paper, a new temperature parameter set was extracted and the influences of braking conditions on these parameters were investigated by experiments.

First, several simulated braking experiments of disc brakes were conducted to reveal the dynamic variation rules and mechanisms of the FTR in braking. Second, the characteristic parameter subset of the FTR was extracted with five significant parameters, namely, initial temperature, average temperature, end temperature, maximum temperature and the ratio of maximum temperature time. Furthermore, the fitting parameter subset of the FTR was constructed based on the temperature rise curve. Finally, the influence and mechanisms of initial braking velocity and braking pressure on the new temperature parameter set were investigated through braking experiments.

This paper extracted a new temperature parameter set including a characteristic parameter subset and a fitting parameter subset and revealed the influences of braking conditions on it by experiments.

The results showed that the new temperature parameter set extracted in this paper can characterize the dynamic characteristics of disc brake’s FTR variations more objectively and comprehensively. The research results will provide a theoretical basis for extracting the fault feature of friction properties.

Although it is widely acknowledged that health care delivery systems are complex adaptive systems, there are gaps in understanding the application of systems engineering approaches to systems analysis and redesign in the health care domain. Commonly employed methods, such as statistical analysis of risk factors and outcomes, are simply not adequate to robustly characterize all system requirements and facilitate reliable design of complex care delivery systems. This is especially apparent in institutional-level systems, such as patient safety programs that must mitigate the risk of infections and other complications that can occur in virtually any setting providing direct and indirect patient care. The case example presented here illustrates the application of various system engineering methods to identify requirements and intervention candidates for a critical patient safety problem known as failure to rescue. Detailed descriptions of the analysis methods and their application are presented along with specific analysis artifacts related to the failure to rescue case study. Given the prevalence of complex systems in health care, this practical and effective approach provides an important example of how systems engineering methods can effectively address the shortcomings in current health care analysis and design, where complex systems are increasingly prevalent.

The analysis presented in this chapter defines three different synthetic measurements of disincentives for formal work: two standard measurements, namely, the tax wedge and the marginal effective tax rate (METR); and a new, innovative measurement called formalization tax rate (FTR). The novelty of the latter is that it measures disincentives stemming not only from labor taxation but also from benefit withdrawal due to formalization. A descriptive analysis across a large number of OECD and Eastern European countries reveals that the disincentives for formal work – when measured through the FTR – are especially high for low-wage earners. This suggests that formal work might not pay in this segment of the labor market, in particular for the so-called mini-jobs and midi-jobs (low-paying part-time work).

Another novelty of the chapter is its empirical approach. Using EU-SILC 2008 data and OECD Tax and Benefit data for six Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia), we match disincentives for formal work to individual observations in a large data set. Applying a probit regression, the analysis finds a significant positive correlation between FTR or METR and the incidence of being informal. In other words, controlling for individual and job characteristics, the higher the FTR or the METR that individuals are facing is, the more likely they are to work informally. The tax wedge, on the other hand, yields a negative correlation. This indicates that the tax wedge is not sufficiently capturing disincentives for formal work. We also conclude that in cross-country analysis, it might be more useful to use the tax wedge that applies to low-wage earners as opposed to average wage earners.

Research on relationships between firms' degree of internationalization (DOI) and innovation performance has been mixed, and moderators of these relationships need to be explored. We focus on patents granted as an indicator of innovation performance and explore the moderating role of firms' home-country languages on the DOI–innovation performance relationship. We argue that in countries with languages that always require speakers to grammatically mark the future, firms will focus less on the future value of patents, which should moderate DOI–innovation performance relationships.

We use an unbalanced panel consisting of 567 firm-year observations of 64 different large automotive suppliers from the year 2007 through 2019. This database was analyzed using negative binomial models with a 3-years lag structure and firm controls.

Results show a U-shaped DOI–innovation performance relationship, but only for firms from countries that do not always require speakers to grammatically mark the future. Additionally, a firm's status as being from a country where dominate languages always require speakers to grammatically mark the future has a direct negative relationship with innovation performance.

Limitations are that the sample included a large number of firms from one country (i.e. Japan) and focused on a single industry. Additionally, we used a narrow operational definition of innovation performance (i.e. patents) and relied upon a single methodology. In terms of implications, we identify one moderator that helps explain mixed results of past DOI–innovation performance research, and we identify a direct relationship between language and innovation performance. Hence, future research in this area should control for the dominant language type of firms' home countries.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine how language moderates DOI–innovation performance relationships and also relates to innovation performance directly.

This paper aims to overcome the defect of single-source temperature measurement method and improve the measurement accuracy of FTR. The friction temperature rise (FTR) of brake affects braking performance seriously. However, it was mainly detected by single-source indirect thermometry, which has obvious deviations.

A three-point temperature measurement system was built based on three kinds of single-resource thermometry. Temperature characteristics of these thermometry were analyzed to achieve a standard FTR curve. Two fusion-monitoring models for FTR based on multi-source information were established by artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector machine (SVM).

Finally, the two models were verified based on the experimental results. The results showed that the fusion-monitoring model of SVM was more accurate than that of ANN in monitoring of FTR.

Then the temperature characteristics of the three single-source thermometry were analyzed, and the fusion-monitoring models based on multi-source information were established by ANN and SVM. Finally, the accuracy of the two models was compared by the experimental results. The more suitable fusion-monitoring model for FTR monitoring was determined which would be of theoretical and practical significance for remedying the monitoring defect of FTR.

Recently the advances in wireless communication technology and the popularity of portable computers have rendered mobile computing environments from which mobile users with battery‐operated palmtops can access the information via wireless channels, without space and time restriction. In mobile computing environments, mobile users cache the data items to use the bandwidth efficiently and improve the response time of mobile transactions. If the data items cached in mobile users are updated at the server, the server broadcasts an invalidation report for maintaining the cache consistency of mobile users. However, this method has an obstacle that does not guarantee the serializable execution of mobile transactions. The purpose of this paper is to propose the four types of reports for mobile transaction (FTR‐MT) method for ensuring the serializable execution of mobile transactions.

The paper describes the FTR‐MT method, which is composed of four types of algorithms, e.g. group report composition algorithm, immediate commit decision algorithm, cache consistency algorithm, and disconnection cache consistency algorithm. FTR‐MT method for improving the response time of mobile transactions makes a commit decision by using the four types of reports.

With the FTR‐MT method, mobile users can make a commit decision by using the four types of reports. The response time of mobile transactions can be reduced. Furthermore, the FTR‐MT method can improve the cache efficiency in the case that the disconnection of mobile users is longer than the broadcast interval of the window report.

This paper proposes a new method for guaranteeing the serializable execution of mobile transactions, called FTR‐MT, using four types of reports. Also, it can prevent the entire cache dropping, even though the disconnection of a mobile host is longer than the broadcast interval of a window report. Through the analytical model, this method is felt to be superior to other methods, in terms of the average response time and the commit rate of mobile transactions, and bandwidth usage.

The friction between brake pair causes an intense temperature rise on interface during braking, which affects the braking performance seriously. Therefore, building an accurate testing method for frictional temperature rise (FTR) is a prerequisite.

Facing braking conditions of automobiles, an experimental system for testing of FTR based on preset thermometry method (PTM) was established. The FTR was collected by the PTM and the variation laws as well as the cause of errors were analyzed by experiments. The deviations between tested and real temperature were corrected based on tribology and heat theories. Finally, an online prediction method for FTR was pointed out.

After correction, the temperature curve accords well with the laws of tribology and thermal theories. The corrected FTR at braking end point is approximately equal to the authentic temperature test by hand thermometer.

This study eliminated the hysteresis phenomenon of temperature rise sequence and lays a foundation for online accurate monitoring and warning of brake friction temperature rise. It has important theoretical and practical value for expanding the monitoring and improvement of brake performance.

The laundering of money appears to have reached almost epidemic proportions, due primarily to the increase in profit from the sale of illegal drugs; the growth of organised crime, particularly in Russia; the sale of oil outside of OPEC quotas; and the siphoning off of aid funds. The bulk of these funds are washed through the global financial system before arriving at their final destination … a high‐street bank.

This paper aims to provide investors’ views on financing costs and barriers to entry into the electricity generation sector, with a focus on investors’ views on potential impacts on cost of capital from adopting nodal pricing and financial transmission rights (FTRs). The implications for policymakers and policy reforms are also discussed in detail.

Survey-based data collection of investors and developers in electricity generation, consisting of multiple choice questions from a closed list of discrete choices, binary-choice questions, and questions with free-text/open-ended answers.

Across survey respondents, weighted-average cost of capital (WACCs) were broadly unchanged over 2019, with increases for undiversified/non-integrated participants offset by decreases for horizontally integrated participants. Cost of equity has risen, whereas cost of debt has fallen. Nodal pricing-cum-FTRs were estimated to increase WACCs by 150–200 basis points p.a. (15–20%), reflecting concerns around the firmness of FTRs and ability to automatically access intraregional settlement residues.

These findings have energy policy implications, namely, the need to consider the interaction between economic theory and real-world financing models when designing and implementing fundamental energy sector reforms.

The need to consider implementation and transitional issues (e.g. grandfathering of existing rights, focusing on reducing the largest barriers to entry) is associated with implementing nodal pricing.

Unique set of survey questions and insights that have not previously been addressed in an Australian context; what-if analysis not previously done in an Australian context

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the gaming equilibrium among fossil‐fueled generation companies (GenCos), wind generation companies, the grid company and customers participating in an emission trading (ET) market and the day‐ahead electricity market.

The complementarity method is used in this work to obtain the Nash equilibrium. By combining the Karush‐Kuhn‐Tucker (KKT) conditions of each kind of market participants with market clearing and consistency conditions, a mixed linear complementarity problem could be established.

Simulation results show that: the enforcement of ET could increase the share of generation outputs of wind generation units, and decrease the emissions from fossil‐fueled generation units; the bilateral contracts between GenCos and customers could limit the ability of exercising market power by GenCos; and when the emissions allowances allocated by the government shrink, the price of emissions allowance will increase and as the result the dispatching order of fossil‐fueled generation units will change, and the shares of generation outputs from wind generation units and combined‐cycle gas turbines increase. However, it should be mentioned that because the cost of wind generation is still very high, the increase of the share from wind generation units in the electricity market should mainly rely on cost reduction rather than the enforcement of ET.

The original contribution and the value of this study lie in developing a model framework to explore the gaming equilibrium that thermal and wind generating plants both play in the emissions trading environment and electricity market.