Power Bank Research Articles

Evaluation of Alternative Power Sources for Operating CDC Mosquito Surveillance Traps.

Several portable, rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-Ion) cell phone power banks were compared with standard 6-V gel lead-acid batteries as alternative power sources for operating mosquito surveillance equipment. In laboratory trials, ToughTested® (TT)16000 and 24000, Goal Zero Venture™ 70, and Griffin Survivor® units either met or exceeded that of sealed 6-V batteries when operating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suction light traps (with incandescent light on) for an average of 24 h. No significant difference was found when continually operating traps powered by either the TT16000 or Goal Zero Venture 70 units compared with 6-V batteries (at approximately 57 h). The TT24000 unit was the only Li-Ion power bank that exceeded this threshold at an average of approximately 73 h. In field studies, there was no significant difference in species diversity or abundance of mosquitoes among the above 4 power sources when operating CDC light traps for 24 h compared with 6-V batteries. Our results indicate that portable Li-Ion cell phone power banks ≥10,050 mAh may be suitable replacements for 6-V gel lead-acid batteries when operating these light traps, especially if weight and size constraints influence the extent of mosquito surveillance during deployments.

Bankers and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean

Scholars have explored how the United States established political and military dominion over the Caribbean region. However, until now, the role of American banks has not received the same level of attention. Peter James Hudson's monograph adds a new dimension to the study of American intervention by documenting how American banks secured financial control over the area. In doing so, he charts the parallel rise of American imperialism and financial capitalism in the early twentieth century. The work of the powerful Wall Street banks built upon the pioneering efforts of financial frontiersmen such as Samuel M. Jarvis. He and the men he trained became adept—brazen even—at working in the murky legal and judicial margins. Hudson deftly interweaves the complicated details of the use of innovative and often legally dubious financial instruments with biographical insights into visionary bankers such as Charles E. Mitchell and loyal foot soldiers such as Joseph H....

IoT Applications in Fermented Tempe Production

Tempe is made from fermented soybeans with the fungus Rhizopus Oligosporus. In the manufacture of tempe producers often experience failure. The main cause is the temperature and humidity of the room where the tempe production is not maintained. The absence of supporting devices for detecting temperature and humidity in the factory is an obstacle in the tempe fermentation process. Manufacturers can only estimate the temperature and humidity in the fermentation chamber. If the temperature is considered too hot, tempe producers will come to the factory and open the air vents so that the room temperature returns to normal. To increase tempe production and reduce the risk of production failure, it is necessary to design an automatic control and monitoring tool through the use of the Internet of Things (IoT). The tools used in this research are ESP8266, DHT22, Relay, Power Bank as a power source, fans, and lights. The results obtained from the test are that if the temperature and humidity are above or below the normal temperature (250C-320C), a notification will appear on the user's smartphone via the Blynk application. If the temperature is too hot, the fan will turn on automatically. If the temperature is too cold, the light will turn on. Monitoring data can also be viewed on the things peak website in graphic form.

Energy harvesting in the form of electricity by Piezo – Cells by placing them in a pair of shoes and storing energy in Power Bank

Piezoelectric utilization as a generator is an effort to obtain electrical energy that refers to the concept of energy harvesting relating to the development of piezo-cells as a powerhouse that converts the pressure or vibration into electrical energy. This energy can be used for low-powered electronic devices because the use of piezoelectric as a powerhouse allows the use in charging low voltage, a large resource is required in different series. The energy harvesting device and a voltage amplifier are created to increase the voltage of the piezoelectric output. An Arduino microcontroller is used to control the energy harvesting device and voltage booster. It has been observed that approximately 10 steps of walk charge four AA 1.2 Volt batteries whereas 80 steps of walk charge two 12 volt batteries.

Efficiency in the MENA banking industry, the stochastic frontier approach (SFA)

The main focus of this paper is the study of efficiency in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) banking industries throughout the period 1999-2017. The study of efficiency in many other regions reveals the existence of failures in the allocation of resources for banking sectors which results in the appearance of banking inefficiency in terms of cost. The empirical results, using a parametric cost frontier applied, show a fluctuating yet improving efficiency in the MENA and are used to rank efficiency of banking industries by country over the years (1999- 2017). Promoting a strong and stable banking system reduces uncertainties and systemic risk which leads to greater efficiency. A stable and efficient banking system is then, necessary, for economic development. Since 1990s, and due to reforms required by supervisory authorities, banks in the MENA region have faced many structural changes and have tried to develop their activities by seeking to enter new markets and new sectors of activity in order to adapt to the economic and institutional environment changes by adopting internal and / or external growth strategies. These strategies can increase banks market power and diversify banking industries’ activities in order to achieve efficiency gains.

ТЕНДЕНЦІЇ ДИДЖИТАЛІЗАЦІЇ СВІТОВОГО РИНКУ ФІНАНСОВИХ ПОСЛУГ

Abstract. In the conditions of Industry 4.0, rapid globalization, growing competition in the financial services market and the entry of powerful foreign banks, maintaining a competitive position requires adaptation to changing external challenges and consumer demands. It becomes urgent tofind innovative forms of activity, which in the digitalization period involves the implementation of information technologyin the activitiesof financial institutions. The goal of the article is to identify the main trends of digitalization in the global financial services market. Methods of comparative analysis, synthesis, systematization and scientific abstraction were used to achieve this goal. The article identifies the main benefits that financial institutions and consumers of financial services obtainfrom the use ofinformation technologies (API, BigData, blockchain, cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things). The implementation of modern information technology in financial institutions allows to generate innovative products, formpersonalized offers for customers, optimize financial institutions’ costs, speed up customer services processes, improve management, reduce the cyber risks, attract new customers,and increase public trust tofinancial institutions. Emphasis is puton the necessity of development of apartnership model of interaction of financial institutions with IT-compamiesand FinTech-companies. In conclusion, the authors note that the deterrents to the digitalization of the Ukrainian financial services market are:underdeveloped legislation; lack of funding for R&Dand innovation projects; low digital literacy; outdated IT-infrastructure. Intensification of digitalization of financial institutions requires significant investments, developed innovative consciousness of management and development of information infrastructure. The authors singled out the prospects for further research,namely:the formation of effective and efficient mechanisms for protecting information systems of financial institutions from cyber attacks and information leakage

The rule of thumb: Private consumption as a driving force of the economic growth of Western Balkan countries

Private consumption is considered one of the main drivers of economic growth in Western Balkan countries. The main aim of this study is to estimate the impact of private consumption on the economic growth of the Western Balkans, including the North Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Housing wealth was even the main driver of total private consumption in the European Union (EU) countries as a whole (Barradas, 2017). Based on an extensive literature review for panel data, this study uses econometric models with fixed effect, random effect, and Hausman-Taylor test. The data are taken from the World Development Indicators by country (The World Bank, n.d.) and cover the period 2010–2019. Based on the Hausman-Taylor test, the model that fits a small sample as in our case is chosen as the fixed effect. The results of the estimator show that a 1% increase in final consumption leads to a 0.43% increase in gross domestic product (GDP) growth and that, on the other hand, a 1% increase in the employment rate increases GDP by 0.11%. The most important domestic factor continues to be private consumption, driven by record levels in the labour market and further strengthening of household purchasing power (Bank of Slovenia, 2020). The study concludes that private consumption is the main driver of economic growth and sustainability in the case of the Western Balkans.

Design and construction of a cost-effective, portable sign language to speech translator

This paper presents the design and construction of a cost-effective, portable sign language to speech translator. The system is designed to work with American Sign Language fingerspelling (which facilitates translation in any Latin alphabet-based language) and aims to translate a pangram into speech. The system consists of three subsystems, namely, gesture detection, gesture classification, and text-to-speech subsystems and relies on a power bank for its power supply. The gesture detection subsystem makes use of five flex sensors, each placed on the finger of a glove, as well as a three-axis accelerometer. Gesture classification is achieved through a supervised machine learning approach — five different algorithms are compared to determine the best configuration for this system. Overall, a support vector machine with a radial basis function kernel and a penalty parameter of 10.0 performs best in the context of this investigation. Using the best-case sensor configuration, and the best-performing machine learning classifier, the system achieves a practical repeatability of 85.51%. Text-to-speech translation of the classified gestures is performed using the eSpeak engine. Overall, the system costs under $35 which is lower when compared to similar systems investigated, that cost at least $100. The final system meets the initial goals of sign language to speech translation, portability and cost-effectiveness.

Pollution Severity Monitoring of High Voltage Transmission Line Insulators Using Wireless Device Based on Leakage Current Bursts

The present article describes a smart wireless online device for the severity monitoring of the contaminated insulators of high voltage transmission networks. Accordingly, the wireless developed monitor works by continuously sensing the magnitudes of the leakage current bursts and calculating its average root-mean-square (RMS) value at every second or minute as the monitor software is calibrated. Regarding, if the average of the leakage current RMS value is adjudicated by the monitor as corresponding to a probably significant scale of a power outage, the monitor transfers an alarm signal and sends a warning message to the maintenance crew members to take the action to wash the high voltage line insulators on time before the unexpected outage of the high voltage network has been occurring. The developed monitor contains the following main units: current transformer with burden resistor, Node MCU (ESP8266), solar power bank, cloud-based data storage, and smart device (Mobile or tablet). These units can be assembled to work without the need for a power source. The proposed monitor has the following merits if it is compared with the other monitoring devices: it enjoys little cost, easy of handling and calibration. It has a high degree of safety, it is an online system, and its design is simple. The developed monitor is tested in the Laboratory using insulators with different pollution layers’ conductivity and the findings show that the accuracy of the proposed monitor reached 91.66 % after carrying out 50 tests.

A Decentralized Game Theoretic Approach for Virtual Storage System Aggregation in a Residential Community

The current electricity market is better described as an oligopoly than a market of perfect competition from which, in fact, it may be rather far. The increasing penetration of residential distributed energy resources has led to a significant number of prosumers in the electricity market. Microgrid community, a group of single controllable entity prosumers, is a promising component of the smart grid which will potentially yield a free electricity market. In this paper, we present a novel formation for a residential community microgrid that includes a coalition of prosumer households with solar photovoltaic systems. These households are connected through a virtual power bank that consists of households’ storage batteries and that mediates the communications between the households and the main grid. Using an application of mean field game theory, we find Nash Equilibrium strategies under which such sharing could minimize a linear combination of the households’ energy generation cost, energy consumption cost and revenue of sold energy. The resulting approach is tested on a case study of a constructed community micro-grid in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The proposed mean field game approach can help decrease the aggregated cost and the individual energy cost. A comparative analytical study on the benefit of sharing was also performed, demonstrating that each prosumer is expected to have at least a 40 percent reduction on their individual cost if belonging to a microgrid community of 100 prosumers located in Montreal city.

An Energy-Efficient Wireless Power Transmission-Based Forest Fire Detection System

Compared with the traditional techniques of forest fires detection, wireless sensor network (WSN) is a very promising green technology in detecting efficiently the wildfires. However, the power constraint of sensor nodes is one of the main design limitations of WSNs, which leads to limited operation time of nodes and late fire detection. In the past years, wireless power transfer (WPT) technology has been known as a proper solution to prolong the operation time of sensor nodes. In WPT-based mechanisms, wireless mobile chargers (WMC) are utilized to recharge the batteries of sensor nodes wirelessly. Likewise, the energy of WMC is provided using energy-harvesting or energy-scavenging techniques with employing huge, and expensive devices. However, the high price of energy-harvesting devices hinders the use of this technology in large and dense networks, as such networks require multiple WMCs to improve the quality of service to the sensor nodes. To solve this problem, multiple power banks can be employed instead of utilizing WMCs. Furthermore, the long waiting time of critical sensor nodes located outside the charging range of the energy transmitters is another limitation of the previous works. However, the sensor nodes are equipped with radio frequency (RF) technology, which allows them to exchange energy wirelessly. Consequently, critical sensor nodes located outside the charging range of the WMC can easily receive energy from neighboring nodes. Therefore, in this paper, an energy-efficient and cost-effective wireless power transmission (ECWPT) scheme is presented to improve the network lifetime and performance in forest fire detection-based systems. Simulation results exhibit that ECWPT scheme achieves improved network performance in terms of computational time (12.6%); network throughput (60.7%); data delivery ratio (20.9%); and network overhead (35%) as compared to previous related schemes. In conclusion, the proposed scheme significantly improves network energy efficiency for WSN.

Intrusive video oculographic device: An eye-gaze-based device for communication

With the improvement in image processing and using the fact that eye movement can persist even with severe paralysis condition, we have developed a device that enables a severely paralysed patient to communicate. The device developed makes it possible for the patient to communicate in “yes” or “no” with the movement of the eyeball alone. In the proposed work, we have used Raspberry Pi as the main processor and Python as programming tool. A 5-megapixel camera is used to read eye movement, a speaker is used to speak “yes” or “no” for the patient and a normal power bank is used to supply the proposed setup. The designed device is efficient, cost-effective, lightweight, and can easily fit on the head.

Thermal runaway behavior of nickel–manganese–cobalt 18650 lithium-ion cells induced by internal and external heating failures

Lithium-ion cells can fail in thermal runaway in a number of ways. Thermally-induced failures can be initiated by either external heating or an internal failure which leads to internal heating. Internal failures such as dendrite growth can lead to an internal short circuit (ISC) which subsequently causes internal heating. Internal failures are a common cause for lithium-ion battery thermal runaway that leads to fire incidents. Preventing and mitigating thermal runaway failure is of great interest in battery fire safety research and development. To evaluate safety measures in a repeatable manner, there is a need for a simple and repeatable technique to reliably fail a given cell, while minimally affecting the pack prior to cell failure. This paper introduces an internal failure mechanism targeted on a single (or multiple) 18650 cell(s) to trigger thermal runaway by (1) modifying commercially acquired 18650s to accommodate a mini-heater cartridge, (2) performing cycling tests on the modified cells and comparing their performance to that of the as-received (pristine) cells in a custom-built failure tube environment, and (3) experimentally examining the characteristics (temperature, flux-time product, voltage drop, and mass loss) of internally heated and failed cells in comparison to externally heated and failed cells. The results show that the modification procedures do not alter a cell’s performance and its charge capacity. Failure tube tests show that the thermal runaway behavior and damage to the modified cells are representative of ”real-world” cell failures. The internally heated cells had different venting behavior relative to externally heated cells, which affects mass loss profiles. When inserting a single, modified cell into a battery package (laptop power bank) and triggering it to cause thermal runaway, failure propagation to the surrounding cells can be characterized. Overall, this study introduces a realistic cell internal failure approach that can benefit the development of battery safety techniques in a variety of applications. The internal-heater failure approach is proven to be easily prepared with standard laboratory apparatus without affecting the battery performance and produces repeatable failure results for single and multiple cell systems.

A portable cosmic ray detector for school education

This article describes the design, assembly and characterization of a portable cosmic ray detector, developed by the INSULAB group and suitable for teaching activities aimed at high school students. It consists of a compact aluminum suitcase containing three plastic scintillator modules coupled to photomultipliers, readout by a custom compact electronics chain and powered by a power bank. The modules operate in coincidence and the system records the arrival time of each particle and the time over threshold of the signal of each scintillator module. The data are acquired and processed by a Raspberry PI connected to a touch screen display for online monitoring. The procedure implemented for the determination of the detector efficiency is reported, along with the results of the measurements of the cosmic ray rate as a function of the altitude and the zenith angle, performed in the laboratory and in different locations outdoors.

Self-powered ultra-sensitive millijoule impact sensor using room temperature cured PDMS based triboelectric nanogenerator

Real time detection of impacts in millisecond range is getting much attention nowadays owing to its possibility in sports for accurate judgement of game movements. Extensive research efforts have also been made to detect impacts directly to assess object security and prediction of its path. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) are emerging as power bank for internet of things (IoT) sensors and have achieved recognition as self-powered sensors. In this work, triboelectric nanogenerator technology is applied to develop an ultra-sensitive impact detector using room temperature cured PDMS and Cu electrodes under contact-separation mode. This TENG produced a power of 14 μW across a load of 20 MΩ under continuous excitation of 1 N force at 6 Hz frequency. Capacitance model is employed to evaluate its resistance and capacitive impedance and to obtain maximum power from self-powered impact detector. Experimental demonstration of capacitor charging validates capacitance model as appropriate model to evaluate TENG. Detailed analysis of small energy impacts are performed and impact time for difference impacts are decoded. The impact detector demonstrated real-time detection of impacts with a sensitivity of 4.1 V/mJ, which is the highest sensitivity compared to recent reports. Various advantages such as simple synthesize procedure, durability of material, self-powered mechanism, high sensitivity, and ultra-fast detection of millijoule energy impacts of the prepared impact sensor demands this device as potential candidate for impact sensing.

Evaluation of the New Modular Biogents BG-Pro Mosquito Trap in Comparison to CDC, EVS, BG-Sentinel, and BG-Mosquitaire Traps.

Mosquito surveillance is an essential component of mosquito control and mosquito traps are a universally employed tool to monitor adult populations. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the new modular Biogents BG-Pro mosquito trap (BGP) and compare its performance to 4 widely used traps for adult mosquitoes: the BG-Sentinel (BGS), the BG Mosquitaire (BGM), the CDC miniature light trap (CDC), and the encephalitis vector survey trap (EVS). One semi-field and 9 field Latin square trials were performed in 7 countries. Results showed that the collection performance of the BGP was equivalent to or exceeded that of the BGS, BGM, CDC, and EVS traps in head-to-head comparisons. The BGP uses 35% less power than the CDC and 75% less than the BGS and BGM. This lower power consumption allows it to run at 5 V for 2 days using a small lightweight 10,000-mAh rechargeable power bank. The BG-Pro is an excellent alternative for the surveillance of mosquito species that are usually monitored with BG-Sentinel, CDC, or EVS traps.

Understanding entity shared product usage: an innovation-adoption coupling model

PurposeConsumer adoption of shared products is a prerequisite for successful commercialization. The purpose of this paper is to explore what innovative characteristics of entity shared products can accommodate consumers' concerns and are likely to motivate adoption of consumers.Design/methodology/approachThis paper used a conceptual model that combined the innovation diffusion theory and technology acceptance model to explore shared products adoption. It identified the direct and indirect effects of perceived app ease of use/online, perceived convenience of access/offline, perceived utility advantages and personal innovativeness on shared products adoption intention. Structural equation modeling was used for analyzing the questionnaire data from a sample of 479 users who used entity shared products such as shared cars, shared bicycles and shared power banks for mobile phones.FindingsThe empirical tests indicate that perceived utility advantages based on market innovation, perceived accessibility of usage rights based on technology innovation (including perceived app ease of use/online and perceived convenience of access/offline) and consumer personal innovativeness are the key factors affecting consumer adoption.Originality/valueThis paper constructs an innovation-adoption coupling model of entity shared products to understand shared products usage. The findings provide useful practical guidance for the design and development of shared products and “usage rights economy” business applications.

MicroMI: A portable microbiological mobile incubator that uses inexpensive lithium power banks for field microbiology

Incubation at controlled temperature is a key step in culture based microbiological tests. Access to culture-based microbiological testing requires access to conventional incubators in a laboratory. Portable incubators allow microbiological testing in the field and in resource-limited settings, and can eliminate the challenge of sample transportation, minimising the chance of sample degradation. Recent studies have reported low-cost portable incubator designs suitable for field or off-grid use, but these either need an external power supply (e.g. mains AC or 12 V DC), or rely on passive heating without thermostatic control. Here we report that small inexpensive uninterruptable power supply (UPS) products manufactured for consumer electronics and powered by lithium-ion battery packs allowing thermostatic temperature control in small portable incubators that can maintain precise temperatures with or without external power. We present an open-source design for a Microbiological Mobile Incubator (MicroMI) in two sizes for field use. The MicroMI is built from simple and widely available components and is easy to set up. The open source design can be customised for different numbers of samples. The smallest and most efficient design uses a vacuum insulated food flask that allows longer operation with smaller, lower capacity UPS. The larger flight case design has space for more samples, but depletes the battery faster. The UPS maintains a typical microbiology incubation temperature for up to 24 h without external power- ideal for typical incubation needed for culture methods. The battery capacity, incubator design, and external ambient temperature all affected duration of operation without requiring external power. We validated the MicroMI by conducting classical microbiological tests using agar petri dishes, slant cultures and dip slides, and biochemical tests. We conclude the MicroMI design allows inexpensive lithium battery products to be used to simplify field microbiology and increase access to vital analytical microbiology testing.

Exploding power: a statewide review of lithium battery related burns

Introduction: With the increase of lithium battery devices, including electronic cigarettes and battery power banks, there has been a steady rise in burn injuries secondary to device malfunction. These devices may cause chemical or flame burns. Our aim was to identify and classify epidemiological trends of explosions from lithium battery devices across the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Methods: A review of the NSW Burn Injury Service (SBIS) database from January 2005–December2019, together with medical records from the burns units at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead (CHW), the Concord Repatriation General Hospital (CRGH) and the Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) was conducted. All patients who suffered a burn secondary from a lithium battery device were included and data was extracted on mechanism of injury, severity of injury and management. This study was approved by the ethics committees of CHW, RNSH and CRGH [2020/PID00179]. Results: Of the 24 patients identified, six were paediatric and 18 were adults. The majority were male (7:1) with a mean age of 29.0 (+/- 16.6 years). The mean total body surface area burnt was 2.5% (+/- 0.9) [range 0.1–21.0%]. The majority occurred after 2014 and involved spontaneous explosions. Their injuries ranged from partial to full thickness burns with flame being the most common type (n=15). Three quarters of the cases (n=18) occurred in a home setting. Conclusions: Lithium battery device explosions can result in a mix of burn depth injuries from flame, contact and electrical, or chemical burns. Consumers need to be made more aware of the potential risks associated with use of lithium battery powered devices.

Analysis of Power Bank Quality Criteria That Are Important from the Consumer’s Point of View

Consumers of mobile devices expect manufacturers to produce devices that will be an efficient source of electric energy. The batteries currently used in smartphones allow the devices to operate for several hours. Power banks extend the operating time of the device without the need to charge via a charger connected to the mains. The present paper defines first the features of power banks that are the most important for users and, moreover, what knowledge or opinions about important power bank features customers use during purchase. As shown in the survey, according to the respondents, the most important feature determining the quality of a power bank is its capacity. It has been shown in this research that the actual capacity of a power bank is circa 2/3 of the capacity indicated. What have also been investigated are the differences between the average capacities of power banks with Li-ion batteries and the technologically newer Li-Po batteries, in favor of the latter. Power banks were not differentiated according to the type of battery and charging times in the standard variant, with a voltage of 5 V. It has been shown that the smaller usable capacity of the power bank does not affect the faster charging time.