Real Gap Research Articles

Impact of Real Air-Gap Nonuniformity on the Electromagnetic Forces of a Large Hydro-Generator

In this paper, an accurate two-dimensional time-stepping finite-element model of a large hydro-generator considering a nonuniform air gap for computing the magnetic-flux density and the electromagnetic forces is developed and presented. The 74-MVA industrial hydro-generator is modeled using an actual air gap obtained from a monitoring system having eight capacitive sensors installed on its stator teeth. First, the method consisted in creating geometrically the real air gap in the finite-element model. Then, the latter was experimentally validated. The study showed that the impact of the real air gap on the hydro-generator performance could be found in the electromagnetic force density and in the radial magnetic-flux density as well. Furthermore, the considered real air-gap shape contributes to induce many higher magnitude forces at rotating frequency and its multiples that can excite the natural frequencies of the generator structure. Moreover, the computed dynamic rotating net force considering poles displacement is evaluated as 29% of the average value of the static net force.

Monetary Policy and Cyclical Systemic Risk - Friends or Foes?

We explore the procyclicality of monetary policy decisions towards the financial cycle in the 1995-2015 period on a sample of seven central banks. Using the real interest rate gap and the credit-to-GDP gap, we provide evidence that monetary policy procyclicality is a material issue occurring in more than 50% of observations in expansionary phase of financial cycle. It indicates that the central bank faces conflicting objectives of price and financial stability (as proxied by cyclical systemic risk). Nevertheless, taking into consideration all financial cycle phases, complementariness between price and financial stability is more frequent than cases with conflicting objectives in the UK, Euro Area and the US. The occurrence of potential procyclical behaviour of monetary policy (especially in the financial cycle expansion phases) underlines the need for proactive macroprudential policy.

Magnetic semiconductors and half-metals in FeRu-based quaternary Heusler alloys

Phase stability, electronic structure and magnetic properties of the FeRu-based quaternary Heusler alloys, FeRuYZ (Y = Ti, V, Cr, Mn and Z = Al, Ga, In, Si, Ge, Sn), have been investigated theoretically. In one primitive unit cell, these alloys contain 24–26 valence electrons. The formation energy Ef of FeRuYZ increases with increasing atomic number of Z when the Y or Z elements belong to the same group in the periodic table. And in the same period, group-IIIA Z element is not preferable for the stability of FeRuYZ compared with corresponding group-IVA element. This can be explained from the charge density difference. The 24-electron FeRu-based quaternary Heusler alloys are all paramagnets. Among them, FeRuTiSi (Ge, Sn) are all semiconductors with real band gap at the Fermi levels. These alloys may have potential applications as thermoelectric materials. High spin polarization ratio is observed in the 25-electron Heusler alloys, among which FeRuCrAl is predicted to have a 100% spin polarization ratio. The 26-electron FeRuCrSi is found to be a spin gapless semiconductor (SGS) with total spin moment of 2μB. These materials can be interesting for the development of spintronic materials. The origin of SGS character in FeRuCrSi was discussed and compared with half-metallic Fe2CrSi, in which Ru and Fe are isoelectronic. These findings can help to design new SGSs in Heusler alloys.

The Impact of Competitiveness on Brain Drain, GMM Panel Approach

Brain drain is one of the challenges that many countries have been facing for ages and it is considered as one of the most damaging issues in the countries. So far, economists have always emphasized and focused on the factors affecting brain drain, including economic growth, quality of innovation, human capital, unemployment rate of graduates, institutional quality, intellectual property rights, economic, political and civil liberties, political and social environment, inequality, and so on. The study of each of them, in turn, explains the causes of brain drain. But along with these factors, the effect of the power of competitiveness on brain drain, which has recently been taken into consideration by international communities, has been neglected and there have not yet been comprehensive studies on it. While competitiveness as a factor of attraction can increase the motivation and welfare of the elites and it ultimately prevents the elites from leaving the country by employing them in different parts of the country. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of competitiveness on brain drain from selected Islamic countries to the USA during the period from 2007 to 2015 using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The results of this study showed that the competitiveness index has a negative and significant effect on brain drain. Additionally, the indexes of welfare gap and real wage gap have respectively positive, significant and positive, and insignificant relationships with brain drain in the studied countries. The variable of unemployment rate also has a positive and significant relationship with the brain drain. According to the findings of the study, poor competitiveness in Islamic countries, which are mostly sending countries, is a repulsive factor that leads to a large exodus of elites from the above-mentioned countries. Therefore, it is suggested that politicians and managers of the Islamic countries pay more attention to the indicators of competitiveness in order to reduce the brain drain.

Price Level Stabilization: Hayek contra Mainstream Economics

The doctrine of beneficial effects of price level stabilization is an integral part of modern mainstream economics. In the 1920s and 1930s, Friedrich August von Hayek questioned this monetary policy regime, and stressed injection effects of the newly created money aimed at price level stabilization in the economy with expanding natural output. This paper compares the Hayekian theory with mainstream economics. A simple graphical apparatus is used to clarify major differences between the two theories. Standard textbook models are applied to show why the Hayekian approach favours secular deflation over price level stabilization which may lead to the boom-bust cycle. The next section presents New Keynesian arguments in favour of stable prices or even low inflation, and it shows why the Hayek recommendations may result in quasi-recession. The Wicksellian equation, which relates inflation gap to the real interest rate gap, is derived to reconcile the Hayek approach with the mainstream perspective. Finally, it is demonstrated that New Keynesian price rigidities might be of much lower importance when the decline in prices is caused by technological progress. A gradually falling price level is then identified as a natural response of the price system in the expanding economy.

Responsabilidade ética e social do Arquivista e a Lei de Acesso à Informação

A necessidade de democratização da informação culmina na busca por instrumentos, meios e estratégias que solucionem problemas informacionais. Se torna indispensável à reflexão em torno das atribuições do profissional que intermedeia o campo da informação, o arquivista. Presentes nesse contexto focalizam-se nesta pesquisaos arquivistas que trabalham diretamente com as informações de cunho público. Com o advento da Lei de Acesso à Informação (LAI), inúmeras especificidades surgem na realidade desse profissional. Em que aspectos a LAI incide nas atribuições do profissional arquivista das instituições públicas universitárias? Para respondê-la, adotou-se como macro-objetivo compreender que aspectos a lei e suas diretrizes interferem nas atribuições do arquivista, em especial no que diz respeito às questões de responsabilidade ética e social. Metodologicamente, a pesquisa se caracteriza como estudo de caso, por visualizar a realidade dos profissionais arquivistas da Universidade Federal da Paraíba. A coleta dos dados se deu através de entrevistas semiestruturadas, analisadas por meio do método de interpretação de sentidos. Constata-se real distanciamento do profissional arquivista no que toca à aplicabilidade da LAI, como nas possíveis mudanças das atribuições relativas ao contexto ético e social. É notória a necessidade de reavaliação sobre a importância dada aos arquivos da Universidade e aos seus profissionais arquivistas.Palavras-chave: Atribuições do arquivista. Lei de Acesso à Informação. Responsabilidade ética e social. Universidade Federal da Paraíba.Link: https://agora.emnuvens.com.br/ra/article/view/672

GENDER GAPS IN VOTER'S BEHAVIOUR IN MODERN UKRAINE: FACTORS AND INFLUENCE

The article deals with the important and insufficiently studied problem of specificity of the gender influence on electors’ orientations in modern Ukraine. The studies fixed the presence of gender gaps in the electoral behavior – certain difference in electoral activity (participation in elections) and electoral preferences (decision about whom to give the own voice) among men and women. Based on the analysis of the situation in the Ukrainian society, there was determined, that the real gender gap in the electoral behavior of women and men is conditioned by the series of factors: historical (1), ideological (2), economic (3), social (4), political (5), cognitive-propagandist (6), stereotype and others (7).Their influence really determines a motivation of making electoral decisions by them. It was established, that just these factors, added by the series of partial ones (regional, type and level of elections, strategies of organizing election campaigns and so on) determine the presence of differences in the electoral behavior of men and women. Present gender gaps testify not only to the difference in the attitude to elections, they manifest the difference in approaches as to the attitude to the whole totality of social and political problems among men and women. Historical, economic, social, political, ideological factors, separated at the analysis, are more or less manifested in gender stereotypes that function in the society, that describe and legitimize men’s and women’s status in the society, their attitude to different social phenomena that results in the necessity to take them into account obligatorily at organizing elections.

Automatic gap tracking during high power laser welding based on particle filtering method and BP neural network

A numerical simulation model was established to investigate characteristics of keyhole and molten pool during the laser butt welding. The sharp point in front of the keyhole and molten pool revealed the position of the gap, and its deviation in transversal direction between the centroid of the keyhole demonstrated the real-time deviation between the laser beam and real gap. A visual system was designed to capture real-time infrared images of keyhole and molten pool, and the real-time deviation data between the laser beam and gap was extracted from these images. The state and measurement equations of real gap position prediction were developed based on the welding system. The particle filtering (PF) method was employed to improve the accuracy of the prediction of the gap position. Considering the non-linear and unknown distribution of system error and measurement error, a Back Propagation (BP) neural network was developed to compensate for these errors. The effectiveness of the established PF method combined with BP network was validated by experimental results, and higher prediction accuracy of gap position tracking was achieved.

The X-ray binary system in the EP era

Searching for X-ray binaries and establishing a large sample are the foundation of answering many scientific problems, such as, how many BH X-ray binaries are there within our Milky Way galaxy? Does there exist a real gap between the mass distribution of neutron stars and black holes? Is there any black hole system within globular clusters? The planned mission Einstein Probe (EP) has a much better sensitivity compared to the past missions, so it is expected to discover many new X-ray binary systems over its operating period, which will play a key role in helping solve the problems above then.

The Impact of Luxury Housing on Neighborhood Housing Prices in Taipei City

This study investigated whether a decision to construct luxury housing can help increase neighborhood housing prices. The difference-in-difference method was used in the analysis. Housing transaction data from 2008 to 2011 were used in the analysis. According to the empirical results, after eliminating the common growth in prices (10.6%) between the neighborhood in which luxury housing was to be built and the other non-luxury neighborhood, the real gap in the housing prices caused by the luxury housing was 11.2%. This suggests that luxury housing has spillover effects on neighborhood housing prices and, specifically, can help to increase neighborhood housing prices. Furthermore, the results showed that housing prices in the neighborhood in which the luxury housing was to be built were inversely proportional to the distance from the luxury housing.

Real Estate Attributes, Income Gap and Change Trend of Housing Prices

Previous studies on the relationship between income gap and housing prices pay little attention to the dual features of real estate,namely consumption and investment.From the perspective of dual attributes of real estate,this paper firstly theoretically explains the dynamic relationship between income gap and housing prices.The results show that in the stage of low-level economic development,consumption attribute of real estate dominates and the widening income gap curbs rising housing prices.With further development of the economy,the single attribute of real estate is not obvious,and the changes in income gap do not have the significant effect on housing prices.In the stage of high-level economic development,the investment attribute of real estate dominates and the widening income gap promotes rising housing prices.Further empirical study of theoretical results indicates that as a whole there is no significant correlation between income gap and housing prices in China and the single attribute is not obvious.But in terms of inter provincial differences in the level of economic development,the income gap causes rising housing prices in developed provinces,and inhibits rising housing prices in underdeveloped provinces.As the time goes on,the role of income inequality in housing prices transfers from curbing to promoting.

Hysteresis and labour market institutions. Evidence from the UK and the Netherlands

This paper uses data for the UK and the Netherlands (1983q4–2011q4) to test if hysteresis occurs in these economies, and through what mechanisms. The novelty of the paper resides in the use of a VAR-IRF that encompasses previous hysteresis studies, using long-term unemployment, productivity, capital stock and real long-term interest rates, and in the use of specific Labour Market Institutions shocks, such as benefits, taxation or unions’ power. This allows us to disentangle what specific demand and supply-variables affect unemployment in the long-run, i.e. the NAIRU. Our findings suggest that there is hysteresis in both countries, and that it happens through several channels. Further, we find that the influence of Labour Market Institutions on unemployment depend on their impact on the real wages-productivity gap. These results have implications for structural and macroeconomic policies that we also discuss. Finally, we investigate the impact of different supply and demand-shock on long-term unemployment and discuss the relevant policy implications.

An aggressive car-following model in the view of driving style

The complexity of the driving behavior restricts the realism of traffic simulation. This paper proposed that vehicle mobility models should be established according to diverse driving styles to further approximation of real driving behavior. With Krauss model represented, the conservative (driving style) of safe distance car-following model is analyzed. The analysis means that real vehicles can occasionally break the safe distance rule, and on average, real vehicle gap is slightly smaller than that in the Krauss model. An aggressive car-following model is proposed in the view of driving style. Simulation results show the new model can simulate aggressive driving style, which has significance to simulate traffic using diverse driving style models. Since it breaks the safe distance rule, the new model has the possibility of generating rear-end collisions when simulating. Drivers’ characteristics, prediction behavior, the cause of accidents, and the effects of time granularity on a simulation are studied. The concept of “road black hole” is put forward, which is believed to reduce velocity of traffic flow.

The Structural, Electronic, Magnetic, and Optical Properties of Mn2ZrGa1−x Ge x Heusler Alloys: First-Principles Calculations

The structural, electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of Mn-based Heusler Mn2ZrGa1−x Ge x (x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1) alloys are calculated by first-principles full-potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbital (FP-LAPW+lo) method. It is found that Mn2ZrGa1−x Ge x alloys are half-metallic ferrimagnetic and their magnetic moments are in good agreement with the Slater–Pauling relationship. The calculations reveal that all alloys have a pseudo-gap in the majority-spin channel except for x = 0.75 and x = 1 which have a real gap in the majority-spin channel. The spin polarization is quite large for whole series, and it reaches to a value of 100% for x = 0.75 and x = 1. Our calculated results clearly show that with the Ge substitution, the lattice parameter linearly decreases while the bulk modulus increases. Moreover, the calculated formation energies confirm that these alloys are stable chemically. The optical properties, including the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric function, reflectivity, and absorption spectra, were also investigated. The results show that the dominant behavior, at energy below 1 eV, is due to interactions of free electrons in the system. The increment of Ge concentration leads to an increase in the plasma frequency of metallic spin channel.

Steering between Primacies: Challenges to the Australia-U.S. Alliance

Steering between Primacies:Challenges to the Australia-U.S. Alliance Michael Wesley (bio) The Australia-U.S. alliance has experienced three straight decades of tightening and deepening, driven by a range of factors. The advent of the "unipolar moment" provided a strong incentive for Australia to make a sustained diplomatic effort to reinforce and renovate its alliance with the United States after the Cold War, rather than to attenuate it as Thailand and the Philippines did. The tech-driven surge in the U.S. economy, coupled with the revolution in military affairs, convinced successive Australian governments that the United States was an indispensable security partner for the foreseeable future. Regional and global security dynamics further drove a convergence in strategic interests. Post-Tiananmen China had stabilized Communist rule and inaugurated a sustained period of economic growth through the 1990s. Its insistence on the retrocession of Hong Kong and Macao and its "missile diplomacy" against Taiwan in 1996 underlined for many the arrival of a wealthy and assertive power in Asia. And by the end of the 1990s, the region's strategy of socializing China through regional organizations had clearly not worked. The September 11 attacks, followed by the Bali bombings on Australia's doorstep, focused Australian and U.S. concerns on terrorism and weak states for the decade that followed. Australia's strong support for U.S.-led campaigns in Central Asia and the Middle East, and its willingness to contribute to the controversial invasion of Iraq, provided ample opportunities to co-embed Australian and U.S. forces, integrate intelligence cooperation to unprecedented levels, and press forward with a range of interoperability initiatives. The alliance gained an economic pillar with the signing of a free trade agreement in 2005. The following discussion examines the challenges to the Australia-U.S. alliance that have emerged over the last decade. The essay then assesses Australia's strategic options and concludes by arguing that the allies need to develop a common strategy to balance China's rise. [End Page 59] Challenges for the Australia-U.S. Alliance Over the past decade, several trends have emerged to complicate the seemingly inexorable push by Australia to build ever-closer strategic ties with the United States. The first decade of the 21st century saw the remarkable complementarity between the Australian and Chinese economies become manifest. China became a massive importer of Australia's primary commodities, driving a trade boom that was unprecedented in Australian history, while China's own surge of manufacturing exports did not threaten Australia's small industrial sector. While Americans came to see China as an economic threat, Australians were seeing it as an economic opportunity. Toward the end of the decade, the global financial crisis opened up a real gap between the United States' and China's economic performance, as the latter country's strong economic growth placed it even more firmly at the center of regional trade dynamics. China's arms spending continued to spiral upward as the United States slashed its own military budget, a contrast that undermined the credibility of the commitment to "rebalance" U.S. forces to the Asia-Pacific, which President Barack Obama unveiled in a speech to the Australian Parliament in 2011. Rather than being cowed, China answered the rebalance with a more assertive challenge to U.S. primacy in the Pacific. In the South China Sea, it began to back its territorial claims more aggressively and declared an air defense identification zone over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. Beijing began building and weaponizing artificial islands in the Spratly Islands, while also doubling down on its investments in anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) weapon systems, aimed at raising the risk to U.S. naval operations in the western Pacific. In both arenas, China challenged U.S. primacy materially, as well as testing the credibility of U.S. alliance commitments to the Philippines and Japan. To most observers in Australia, the United States' alliance credibility was enhanced through its strong support for Japan but damaged in relation to the Philippines. Meanwhile, China's assertiveness brought none of the diplomatic costs that analysts had expected. Trade, investment, and positive diplomatic ties continued with even those countries in...

Designing Valid and Reliable Vignette Experiments for Survey Research: A Case Study on the Fair Gender Income Gap

In survey research, vignette experiments typically employ short, systematically varied descriptions of situations or persons (called vignettes) to elicit the beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors of respondents with respect to the presented scenarios. Using a case study on the fair gender income gap in Austria, we discuss how different design elements can be used to increase a vignette experiment’s validity and reliability. With respect to the experimental design, the design elements considered include a confounded factorial design, a between-subjects factor, anchoring vignettes, and blocking by respondent strata and interviewers. The design elements for the sampling and survey design consist of stratification, covariate measurements, and the systematic assignment of vignette sets to respondents and interviewers. Moreover, the vignettes’ construct validity is empirically validated with respect to the real gender income gap in Austria. We demonstrate how a broad range of design elements can successfully increase a vignette study’s validity and reliability.

Modeling the real ruble exchange rate under monetary policyregime change

The paper estimates vector error correction model (VECM) for the real ruble exchange rate and real oil prices. The VECM model takes into account the structural break in short-term parameters due to the Bank of Russia monetary policy regime change in November 2014. Estimates show that the real exchange rate response to oil price shocks has dramatically changed. Before November2014 it took approximately one year to correct 50% of the real exchange rate gap due to oil prices permanent change. From November 2014 the real exchange rate adapts to oil price shocks almost instantly. The estimate of long-run elasticity of the real exchange rate on real oil prices is 0.33.

A Strategic Approach to Plant Optimization

ABSTRACTIn an increasingly capital constrained world, the ability to fund business improvement step change programs is becoming increasingly difficult, yet significant opportunities are available across the three primary pillars of maintenance and reliability, energy efficiency and process efficiency. The recent volatility in energy costs and the potential for greenhouse gas emission trading has raised the awareness of industrial energy efficiency in most manufacturing and processing industries, yet there is a real and significant gap between the efficiency opportunities that are available and the level of savings that actually get implemented. In a similar manner, there is ample evidence that the same can be said of most maintenance and reliability programs as well. Process efficiency opportunities are often directly coupled or intrinsically linked to both maintenance and reliability, and energy efficiency step change processes, giving rise to a multidimensional opportunity matrix. It is becoming increas...

Natural interest rate: Assessing the stance of India’s monetary policy under uncertainty

The constant natural interest rate assumption implicit in Taylor type feedback rules to assess the stance of monetary policy could be misleading at times, particularly because of the time-varying nature of the natural interest rate. In the post crisis period, reflecting a complex web of supply side, demand side, regulatory and global factors, natural rates of both advanced and emerging economies have been estimated in the literature to have altered considerably. Using a theoretical framework that combines the essence of Ramsay’s growth model and the New-Keynesian macro-dynamics, and applying the Kalman filter estimation technique, this paper finds that India’s estimated natural real interest rate in Q4 of 2014–2015 lied in a range of 0.6%–3.1%, even though core estimates point to a narrower range of 1.6%–1.8%. These estimates indicate that the real interest rate gap was negative in India for a major part of the last about ten years when CPI inflation was persistently high, implying that monetary policy stance of the Reserve Bank was largely accommodative rather than anti-inflationary.

A geometrical imaging of the real gap between economies of China and the United States

GDP of China is about 10 trillion dollars and GDP of the United States is about 18 trillion dollars. Suppose that we know for the coming years, economy of the US will experience a real growth rate equal to %3 and economy of China will experience a real growth as of %6. Now, the question is how long does it take for economy of China to catch the economy of the United States. The early impression is that the desired time is the answer of the equation 10×1.06X=18×1.03X. The correct answer however is quite different. GDP is not a simple number and the gap between two countries cannot be addressed simply through their sizes. It is rather a geometrical object. Countries pass different paths in the space of production. The gaps between GDP of different countries depend on the path that each country passes through and local metric. To address distance between economies of China and of the US we need to know their utility preferences and the path that China passes to reach the US size. The true gap then can be found if we calculate local metric along this path. It resembles impressions about measurements in the General Theory of Relativity. Path dependency of measurements is an old known fact in economy. It is widely discussed in the Index Number Theory. Our aim is to stick to the geometrical view presented in the General Relativity to provide a fast impression about the matter for physicists. We show that different elements in the general relativity have their own counterparts in economics. We claim that national agencies who provide aggregate data resemble falling observers into a curved space time. It is while the World Bank or international organizations are outside observers.