•A cross-country analysis identifying risk and protective factors on the COVID-19 deaths.•Ranking of 100 countries based on the proposed pandemic containment effectiveness (PCE) score.•Positive ...relationship between the PCE score and economic growth in major economies.•A counterfactual analysis discussing the tradeoff between the PCE scores and GDP growth.
This paper studies whether containing COVID-19 pandemic by stringent strategies deteriorates or saves economic growth. Since there are country-specific factors that could affect both economic growth and deaths due to COVID-19, we first start with a cross-country analysis on identifying risk and protective factors on the COVID-19 deaths using large across-country variation. Using data on 100 countries from 3 January to 27 November 2020 and taking into account the possibility of underreporting, we find that for deaths per million population, GDP per capita, population density, and income inequality are the three most important risk factors; government effectiveness, temperature, and hospital beds are the three most important protective factors. Second, inspired by the stochastic frontier literature, we construct a measure of pandemic containment effectiveness (PCE) after controlling for country-specific factors and rank countries by their PCE scores for deaths. Finally, by linking the PCE score with GDP growth data in Quarters 2 and 3 of 2020, we find that PCE is positively associated with economic growth in major economies. Countries with average PCE scores, such as Malaysia, would gain more GDP growth by 3.47 percentage points if they could improve their PCE scores for deaths to South Korea’s level in Q2 of 2020. Therefore, there is not a trade-off between lives and livelihood facing by governments. Instead, to save economy, it is important to contain the pandemic first. Our conclusion is also mainly valid for infections due to COVID-19.
Solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) power plant plays a vital role in a hybrid alternative energy based microgrid due to its reliability and flexibility in power supply. However, the control of SOFC is ...challenging in terms of providing a fast load tracking while maintaining the fuel utilization rate within a safe range. To this end, this paper builds two basic coordinated control strategies (CCS) for power management of SOFC-based microgrid. The first is "Fuel Cell follows Inverter" scheme, where fast tracking is preferred while SOFC may operate on the edge of the safety range. The second is "Inverter follows Fuel Cell" scheme, where high security is guaranteed by sacrificing performance in load tracking. To obtain a robust and simple scheme, energy balance principle is used in CCS such that PI controller is sufficient to fulfill the basic duties. Moreover, a simple supervisory control strategy is proposed for microgrid to provide a reasonable power reference for SOFC. The control system is designed and tuned based on an SOFC plant with inverter's average model. The efficiency of the proposed strategies is validated via a grid-connected SOFC/photovoltaic microgrid.
Budget deficit has been a common fiscal pressure facing Chinese cities since the 1994 fiscal reform. Meanwhile, land lease sales have become a significant off-budgetary revenue to local governments ...since 2003. This paper investigates whether financing budget deficit is an important driving force of the recent soaring housing prices when local governments function as the monopoly supplier of urban land. A conceptual framework is developed to illustrate a transmission mechanism from budget deficit to housing prices. This leads to an empirical model consisting of two simultaneous structural equations for housing prices and land prices. Using data for the 35 major Chinese cities from 2003 to 2011, an empirical exercise shows that although budget deficit has a positive effect on land prices, it is the factors from demand side, such as amenities, income and the user cost of housing capital, that have been pulling up the housing prices.
Paeonol, 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy acetophenone, is one of the main active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine such as Cynanchum paniculatum, Paeonia suffruticosa Andr and Paeonia lactiflora Pall. ...Modern medical research has shown that paeonol has a wide range of pharmacological activities. In recent years, a large number of studies have been carried out on the structure modification of paeonol and the mechanism of action of paeonol derivatives has been studied. Some paeonol derivatives exhibit good pharmacological activities in terms of antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic analgesic, antioxidant and other pharmacological effects. Herein, the research progress on paeonol derivatives and their pharmacological activities were systematically reviewed.
•Blast response of gradient honeycomb sandwich panels were examined.•Influence of core arrangement on the blast response were investigated.•The energy absorption of gradient cores was calculated.•The ...use of basalt FMLs can enhance the blast resistance of sandwich panels.
In this paper, the blast responses of fiber metal laminates (FMLs) and gradient aluminum honeycomb sandwich panels with FML as skins were experimentally investigated. The woven basalt fabric was chosen as the composite reinforcement in FMLs due to its excellent mechanical and eco-friendly properties. Five different core layer arrangements were considered for sandwich panels in the experiments by arranging honeycomb core layers with different cell geometric dimensions. The deformation/failure modes of sandwich panels were obtained in the experiments, in terms of FML face-sheets and gradient honeycomb cores. The energy absorption of gradient honeycomb cores was quantitatively analyzed by digitizing the deformation/failure region of cores. The results showed that the use of basalt FMLs as face sheets can greatly enhance the blast resistance of sandwich panels compared with that with aluminum sheets as skins. The blast resistance of gradient sandwich panels not only depends on the geometric dimensions and arrangements of core layers, but also related to the intensity of target load which will cause different deformation/failure mechanism of panels. Thus, in order to obtain the best blast resistance, a well-design gradient sandwich panel should have suitable core layer arrangements and geometry to satisfy the intensity of target blast load. The results obtained from current study can give valuable reference to the using of sandwich panels in engineering protection field.
Investment frictions reduce, delay or protract investment expenditure that is necessary for firms to capture growth opportunities. Using a capital adjustment costs framework, this article estimates ...the gap between China's actual and frictionless aggregate output. It applies the method of simulated moments to a fully structural investment model on a panel of Chinese firms and takes into account potential unobserved heterogeneities and measurement error in the data. The estimated capital adjustment costs imply that if Chinese firms had faced a lower level of adjustment costs such as in the US, China's aggregate output would be 25% higher.
Finite element simulations were conducted to investigate the dynamic responses of metallic sandwich spherical shells with graded aluminum foam cores under inner blast loading. The deformation of ...spherical shells, the energy absorption of each core layer, and the propagation characteristic of stress waves in the foam core layers were analyzed and discussed. The spherical shells exhibited an overall inflation–deformation mode as the foam cores were compressed gradually. The arrangement of the core layers with different relative densities had significant effects on the dynamic plastic responses of the spherical shells. The core layer arrangements of 15%–20%–10% and 20%–15%–10% (relative densities) from inside to outside demonstrate the optimal resistance to blast loading.
To break through the thermodynamic reaction limitation of ethane dehydrogenation to ethylene, the oxidative dehydrogenation in the presence of O2 and chemical looping oxidative dehydrogenation has ...been investigated with the oxygen storage oxide compound. LaMnO3 perovskite catalysts with large specific surface areas were prepared using citric acid-nitrate combustion. The oxygen vacancies and M4+ contents in the catalysts were improved by doping LaMnO3 as the active sites. The experimental results show that the catalyst not only promotes ethane dehydrogenation through selective hydrogen combustion but also promotes ethane conversion through activation of CH. The catalyst exhibits good stability in oxidative dehydrogenation reaction.
Oxygen vacancies and Mn4+ contents in manganese perovskite promotes ethane conversion through selective hydrogen combustion and activation of CH. Display omitted
•Citric acid-nitrate combustion method synthesizes large surface area perovskite•Doping Sr and Cl enhanced the oxygen vacancies and Mn4+ contents in LaMnO3.•Chemical loop oxidative dehydrogenation activity was investigated in presence/absence of O2.•Manganese perovskite promotes ethane conversion through selective hydrogen combustion and activation of CH.
Bi-based YbMg2Bi1.98 Zintl compounds represent promising thermoelectric materials. Precise composition and appropriate doping are of great importance for this complex semiconductor. Here, the ...influence of Zn substitution for Mg on the microstructure and thermoelectric properties of p-type YbMg1.85−xZnxBi1.98 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.08, 0.13, 0.23) was investigated. Polycrystalline samples were prepared using induction melting and densified with spark plasma sintering. X-ray diffraction confirmed that the major phase of the samples possesses the trigonal CaAl2Si2-type crystal structure, and SEM/EDS indicated the presence of minor secondary phases. The electrical conductivity increases and the lattice thermal conductivity decreases with more Zn doping in YbMg1.85−xZnxBi1.98, whereas the Seebeck coefficient has a large reduction. The band gap decreases with increasing Zn concentration and leads to bipolar conduction, resulting in an increase in the thermal conductivity at higher temperatures. Figure of merit ZT values of 0.51 and 0.49 were found for the samples with x = 0 and 0.05 at 773 K, respectively. The maximum amount of Zn doping is suggested to be less than x = 0.1.
Policy distortions and financial frictions are two leading candidates in generating capital misallocation. This paper designs an identification strategy to separate their effects on average MRPK ...dispersion across firm ownership, as the average treatment effect on the treated and the selection bias from a policy intervention. Financial frictions are estimated to cause an aggregate TFP loss of 8.3 percent on the intensive margin, which accounts for 30 percent of the capital misallocation observed in China. Using the counterfactual MRPK from a matching procedure, some popular hypotheses on what drive the policy distortions are tested in the matched samples.
•A general model on capital misallocation with both financial frictions and policy distortions.•An identification strategy to separate financial frictions from policy distortions using firm ownership.•Financial frictions cause an 8.3 percent of aggregate TFP loss or 30 percent of capital misallocation.•Testing several popular hypotheses on what drive the policy distortions.
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