Academic literature on the topic 'Multiple harmonic sources identification'

The identification of multiple harmonic sources (MHS) is vital to identify the root causes and the mitigation technique for a harmonic disturbance. This paper introduces an identification technique of MHS in a power distribution system by using a time-frequency distribution (TFD) analysis known as a spectrogram. The spectrogram has advantages in term of its accuracy, a less complex algorithm, and use of low memory size compared to previous methods such as probabilistic and harmonic power flow direction. The identification of MHS is based on the significant relationship of spectral impedances, which are the fundamental impedance (Z1 ) and harmonic impedance (Zh ) that estimate the time-frequency representation (TFR). To verify the performance of the proposed method, an IEEE test feeder with several different harmonic producing loads is simulated. It is shown that the suggested method is excellent with 100% correct identification of MHS. The method is accurate, fast and cost-efficient in the identification of MHS in power distribution arrangement.

Harmonic emissions cause power quality issues in electrical systems, making source identification necessary to determine the best way of remedying them. Existing methods rely on measuring variations in harmonic amplitude, angle, and phase which require multiple measurement points or extensive system knowledge. We identified a methodological research gap because Discrete Harmonic Cycle Time (DHCT) has not been evaluated as a measuring principle for harmonic source identification. We propose a method using DHCT to enable single point measurements to profile harmonic sources. To determine the cycle length, we used a combination of sifting, a filter bank of cascaded high-pass and notch filters, and zero-crossing detection. For comparing the devices, we extracted motifs from the time series of discrete cycle lengths and applied principal component analysis. While it has previously been known in other contexts that harmonics can have varying cycle lengths, our laboratory results show that this is also true for the emissions of power electronic devices and that the differentiation can be used to identify the devices, thus bridging this knowledge gap. This method is independent of system impedance and topology. While further validation in more complex environments is needed, our results suggest that devices can be identified using this measurement principle. Since the measuring principle is orthogonal to other methods, it has potential as a complementary tool in harmonic source identification.

The identification of multiple harmonic sources (MHS) is vital to identify the root causes and the mitigation technique for a harmonic disturbance. This paper introduces an identification technique of MHS in a power distribution system by using a time-frequency distribution (TFD) analysis known as a spectrogram. The spectrogram has advantages in term of its accuracy, a less complex algorithm, and use of low memory size compared to previous methods such as probabilistic and harmonic power flow direction. The identification of MHS is based on the significant relationship of spectral impedances, which are the fundamental impedance (Z1) and harmonic impedance (Zh) that estimate the time-frequency representation (TFR). To verify the performance of the proposed method, an IEEE test feeder with several different harmonic producing loads is simulated. It is shown that the suggested method is excellent with 100% correct identification of MHS. The method is accurate, fast and cost-efficient in the identification of MHS in power distribution arrangement.

This paper introduces an improved of multiple harmonic sources identification that been produced by inverter loads in power system using time-frequency distribution (TFD) analysis which is spectrogram. The spectrogram is a very applicable method to represent signals in time-frequency representation (TFR) and the main advantages of spectrogram are the accuracy, speed of the algorithm and use low memory size such that it can be computed rapidly. The identification of multiple harmonic sources is based on the significant relationship of spectral impedances which are the fundamental impedance (Z1) and harmonic impedance (Zh) that extracted from TFR. To verify the accuracy of the proposed method, MATLAB simulations carried out several unique cases with different harmonic producing loads on IEEE 4-bus test feeder cases. It is proven that the proposed method is superior with 100% correct identification of multiple harmonic sources. It is envisioned that the method is very accurate, fast and cost efficient to localize harmonic sources in distribution system.

This paper introduces a fast method to localize the multiple harmonic sources (MHS) for rectifier based loads in power distribution system by utilizing periodogram technique with a single-point measurement approach at the point of common coupling (PCC). The periodogram is a fast and accurate technique for analyzing and distinguishing MHS location in power system. Matlab simulation is carried out several unique cases on IEEE test feeder cases due to validate the proposed method. The identification of MHS location is based on the significant relationship of spectral impedance which are fundamental impedance (Z1) and harmonic impedance (Zh) that's extracted from an impedance power spectrum. It is verified that the proposed method is fast, accurate, and cost efficient in localizing MHS. In addition, this method also contributes 100% correct identification of MHS location.

This paper introduces the accurate identification of harmonic sources in the power distribution system using time-frequency distribution (TFD) analysis, which is S-transform. The S-transform is a very applicable method to represent signals parameters in time-frequency representation (TFR) such as TFR impedance (ZTFR) and the main advantages of S-transform it can provide better frequency resolution for low frequency components and also offers better time resolution for high-frequency components. The identification of multiple harmonic sources are based on the significant relationship of spectral impedances (ZS) that extracted from the ZTFR, consist of the fundamental impedance (Z1) and harmonic impedance (Zh). To verify the accuracy of the proposed method, MATLAB simulations carried out several unique cases on IEEE 4-bus test feeder cases. It is proven that the proposed method is superior, with 100% correct identification of harmonic source location. It is proven that the method is accurate, fast and cost-efficient to localize harmonic sources in the power distribution system.

This paper presents a gray-box harmonic resonance frequency identification method of multiple-inverter-fed power system, which enables modal analysis oriented to system designers based on only frequency response data provided by diverse vendors or measured by frequency scanning. First, admittance transfer functions of all grid-connected inverters (GCIs) are fitted using Matrix Pencil Method-Vector Fitting (MPM-VF) combined method. Then, node admittance matrix (NAM) is formed according to the topology of whole system. Finally, harmonic resonance frequency along with changes in number of GCIs are identified by NAM-based modal analysis (MA). The proposed gray-box identification method is implemented in a typical multiple-inverter-fed power system. The correctness of harmonic resonance frequency identification results and the effectiveness of the presented method are verified by simulation results obtained in Matlab/Simulink platform and OPAL-RT digital real-time simulation platform. Based on the identification results, a more stable and better power quality multiple-inverter-fed power system can be built by system designers though avoiding the appearance of harmonic sources with corresponding resonance frequency.

This paper will review on the existing techniques and methodologies of harmonic load diagnostic system. The increasingly amount of harmonic producing load used in power system are the main contribution in quantifying each harmonic disturbance effects of the multiple harmonic producing loads and it became very important. Literature proposes two different techniques and methods on the harmonic source identification under the soft computing technique classification. The advantages and disadvantages of harmonic load identification techniques and methods are discussed in this paper. In the proposed method, the issue on the harmonic contribution is determine and transformed to a data correlation analysis. Several techniques to identify the sources of harmonic signals in electric power systems are described and reviewed based on previous paper. Comparative studies of the methods are also done to evaluate the performance of each technique. However, without sufficient information in this inconsistent environment on the property of the power system, accurate harmonic producing load diagnosis methods are important and further investigations in this regard assumes great implication.

<p>This paper will review on the existing techniques and methodologies of harmonic load diagnostic system. The increasingly amount of harmonic producing load used in power system are the main contribution in quantifying each harmonic disturbance effects of the multiple harmonic producing loads and it became very important. Literature proposes two different techniques and methods on the harmonic source identification under the soft computing technique classification. The advantages and disadvantages of harmonic load identification techniques and methods are discussed in this paper. In the proposed method, the issue on the harmonic contribution is determine and transformed to a data correlation analysis. Several techniques to identify the sources of harmonic signals in electric power systems are described and reviewed based on previous paper. Comparative studies of the methods are also done to evaluate the performance of each techniques. However, without sufficient information in this inconsistent environment on the property of the power system, accurate harmonic producing load diagnosis methods are important and further investigations in this regard assumes great implication.</p>

Le véhicule électrique rassemble beaucoup d'équipements électrotechniques. Tous sont potentiellement source de champ magnétique dans l'habitacle : zone confinée où se trouvent les passagers. Il est illusoire de réaliser un modèle numérique complet tant le nombre de paramètres est important. Il est également impossible de placer des capteurs de champ partout à l'intérieur de l'habitacle. Après une étude approfondie des caractéristiques du champ magnétique mesuré dans l'habitacle, nous proposons d'allier modèle a priori et mesure de champ dans une approche Bayésienne du problème inverse. Basée sur le développement en harmonique sphérique du champ, l'apport d'information a priori oriente la solution et permet l'identification de nombreux paramètres avec très peu de mesure<br>Electric vehicles have a lot of electrical devices onboard. All of them may generate electromagnetic field inside the car: a quite small space containing the passengers. A complete modeling of the vehicle can hardly be done because of the parameters number. The magnetic field measurement everywhere inside the car is also impossible. We first measure the magnetic field inside the car to study its characteristics. Then we propose to merge together a priori modeling with measurements into a Bayesian approach of the inverse problem. Based on spherical harmonic decomposition of the magnetic field, a priori information helps the resolution and gives the identified parameters with a very few measurements

Esta tese consiste em apresentar um método para localização e identificação de consumidores com alta contribuição para a distorção harmônica de tensão medida em subestações de sistemas de distribuição de energia elétrica. Cabe comentar que a etapa de localização visa obter uma lista das possíveis posições onde possa estar alocado o consumidor que possua cargas não lineares com grande consumo de potências harmônicas. Partindo-se desta lista, realiza-se a etapa de identificação, em que são estimadas as amplitudes de cada harmônica na posição selecionada. Por fim, um algoritmo para ajuste/sintonia do método de localização é empregado com o intuito de se realizar uma possível correção com relação à posição do consumidor. Desta forma, por meio de estudos de caso (simulados), os resultados obtidos procuram validar a metodologia proposta.<br>This thesis provides a method for location and identification of consumers with larger contribution to harmonic distortion of voltage in power distribution substations. It is worth to mention that the stage of consumers location must furnish a list of possible positions where there may be consumers, who have nonlinear loads with high consumption of harmonic power. From this list, the identification stage is performed in order to estimate the amplitude of each harmonic from the location selected. Finally, a method for improve the location algorithm is employed in order to refine the consumer position. Therefore, by means of simulated case studies, the results obtained for these stages seek to validate the methodology proposed.

Este trabalho consiste em apresentar um método alternativo para a identificação de fontes de correntes harmônicas comumente encontradas em sistemas elétricos residenciais. Desta identificação, soluções viáveis poderão ser aplicadas com o intuito de mitigar os níveis de emissão das correntes harmônicas geradas, principalmente, por cargas com características não lineares. Para a identificação empregou-se redes neurais artificiais (RNAs), sendo esta técnica inteligente, apresentada como uma alternativa aos métodos convencionais. Os resultados reportados neste contexto procuram validar a proposta apresentada com dados experimentais obtidos em ensaios laboratoriais.<br>This work presents an alternative method for the identification of current harmonic sources commonly encountered in residential electrical systems. For this purpose, feasible solutions can be applied to minimize the levels of harmonic currents emission caused by nonlinear loads. Artificial neural networks are employed as alternative to conventional methods. The experimental results will be reported in order to validate the proposal presented with the experimental data obtained in laboratory.

碩士<br>國立中正大學<br>電機工程研究所<br>104<br>This paper has two main topics: 1.Harmonic transponder design. 2. Multiple-band and wide-band design. Harmonic transponder can be devided into two species ─ RFID or non-RFID. The non-RFID part of this paper will first introduce the structure of active and passive harmonic transponder, and then propose a 1.15/2.3 GHz harmonic transponder. AoA technique is applied in the field measurement of the transponder, and the data result is included.The RFID part of this paper using manchest code with FPGA to realize the ID identification function. The clock tolerance of harmonic transponder is also considered in the decoding side FPGA because the clock at the decoding side is not very stable. Finally, ASK modulation is used in the measurement of RFID and the RFID function is verified. About multiple-band and wide-band design of the proposed paper, it proposed a wide-band amplifer by SIR method and a triple-band active filter by Bypass method. Both of the circuits operate at LTE/GSM (700 GHz/1.8GHz/2.4GHz), DECT (1.8 GHz) Bluetooth/ISM (2.45 GHz), Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz) and WiMAX (2.6GHz).

This chapter provides a review of research methods reported in work–family (WF) articles published in peer-reviewed journals between 2004 and 2013. Methodological issues addressed include sampling (sampling methods, identification of target and source populations, response rate, and comparison of sample to source population), research designs (time horizon, laboratory vs. field setting, and level of control), data collection methods, levels of analysis, use of multiple data sources, triangulation, and the use of objective outcome measures. When possible, statistical comparisons were made between the results of this review and those reported in an earlier review by Casper, Eby, Bordeaux, Lockwood, and Lambert (2007). Results show that multiwave as well as qualitative research designs have been used more frequently since the period reviewed by Casper and colleagues. Still, there is room for improvement in the methodological rigor with which WF research is undertaken. In particular, WF scholars are encouraged to give more attention to sampling-related considerations, and to more strongly consider the use of experimental research designs, data/measurement triangulation, and the collection of data beyond the individual level of analysis.

Abstract Contemporary society has witnessed major growth in global governance, yet the legitimacy of global governance remains deeply in question. This book offers the first full comparative investigation of citizen and elite legitimacy beliefs toward global governance. Empirically, it provides a comprehensive analysis of public and elite opinion toward global governance, building on two uniquely coordinated surveys covering multiple countries and international organizations. Theoretically, it develops an individual-level approach, exploring how a person’s characteristics in respect of socioeconomic status, political values, geographical identification, and domestic institutional trust shape legitimacy beliefs toward global governance. The book’s central findings are threefold. First, there is a notable and general elite–citizen gap in legitimacy beliefs toward global governance. While elites on average hold moderately high levels of legitimacy toward international organizations, the general public is decidedly more skeptical. Second, individual-level differences in interests, values, identities, and trust dispositions provide significant drivers of citizen and elite legitimacy beliefs toward global governance, as well as the gap between the two groups. Most important on the whole are differences in the extent to which citizens and elites trust domestic political institutions, which shape how these groups assess the legitimacy of international organizations. Third, both patterns and sources of citizen and elite legitimacy beliefs vary across organizations and countries. These variations suggest that institutional and societal contexts condition attitudes toward global governance. The book’s findings shed light on future opportunities and constraints in international cooperation, suggesting that current levels of legitimacy point neither to a general crisis of global governance nor to a general readiness for its expansion.

AbstractThe most prominent engineering geological problem of pumped storage power station reservoirs in karst areas is karst leakage, the development of karst leakage channels has a significant impact on the selection of reservoir locations, layout of engineering buildings, design of anti-seepage measures, and engineering costs. Therefore, the survey and evaluation of reservoir leakage channels are the foundation for the construction of pumped storage power station reservoirs in karst areas. The field analysis method plays an important role in karst leakage survey. Traditional karst groundwater field analysis methods, based on the representative indicators of each field measured and determined by experience, fail to fully reflect the temporal and spatial change information of each field indicator, and the data cannot be fully utilized and compared for verification. The multi field data fusion analysis method for karst groundwater proposed in this article comprehensively considers the relationship between measured field indicators and leakage sources, natural conditions, adjacent spaces, and different time field indicators， and obtains the characteristic values of the tracer index, background index, gradient index, and time series index of each field, and overlay calculation of single field comprehensive eigenvalues and multi field composite eigenvalues, which can realize the fusion of multiple fields and multiple indicators, amplify the abnormal location signal of seepage, and delineate the location of centralized seepage, so as to quantitatively determine the location information of the seepage channel of karst groundwater. This method is applied to the survey of karst leakage in the lower reservoir of a pumped storage power station in Guizhou Province, field data fusion analysis shows that there is an abnormal seepage field in the anti-seepage curtain line of the site, and there is good evidence for the temperature and conductivity field data. There is a deep karst leakage channel in the reservoir; The burial depth of the channel is more than 170 m below the normal water level. The research results can provide support for subsequent anti-seepage methods and engineering treatments, as well as relevant engineering experience for other projects.

AbstractThe analysis of archaeological textiles is a challenging undertaking, because of the high information content that characterizes these precious remains. Their realization, from the point of view of the dyes and yarns used, can have multiple meanings, for example the wealth of the commissioner and reflect the cultural taste of the society. The raw materials also can reveal the commercial routes, this may not be evident from literary sources and become clear from the archaeometric study of these artifacts. However, the alteration processes to which these materials have been subjected to, such as thermal aging and carbonization, mineralization, etc., represent an extremely critical point for their study and conservation, because these chemical processes are not entirely known and could bring to a complete modification. For these reasons, the identification of their composition requires high sensitivity techniques, characterized also by great versatility.Recently, multi-technical approaches, based on spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques, have been revealed as powerful strategies in providing information about chemical composition of archaeological relics; they have been employed for characterization of dyes and moreover proteomics and genomics. In this chapter a review of the state of the art of FTIR, Raman and mass spectrometry analyses applied to archaeological fabrics will be provided, also reporting several case studies to highlight the potential of these multi-technical analyses.

AbstractAuthigenic minerals forming at marine seeps constitute an excellent archive of past methane seepage and biogeochemical processes. Over the past two decades, authigenic carbonate and sulfur-bearing minerals from methane seeps of the South China Sea (SCS) have been widely investigated, providing insight into fluid sources and seepage dynamics and facilitating the establishment of geochemical proxies to trace sulfate-driven anaerobic oxidation of methane (SD-AOM). Authigenic carbonates from all seep sites in the SCS commonly exhibit low δ13C and high δ18O values, confirming the incorporation of methane-derived carbon and oxygen from a pore water pool probably affected by gas hydrate dissociation. Pyrite is a common authigenic mineral at methane seeps, also forming at low methane flux where authigenic carbonate tends to be absent. The identification of methane seepage and SD-AOM activity consequently benefited from the advancement of sulfur isotope geochemistry, particularly from in situ measurements of δ34Spyrite values using nanoSIMS and multiple sulfur isotopes. Quantification of carbon and sulfur fluxes in the course of SD-AOM in modern and ancient marine sedimentary environments remains challenging, highlighting the need for more field-based research and modeling work. Furthermore, other elemental cycles and biogeochemical processes at methane seeps archived in authigenic minerals, such as nitrogen-based metabolisms, remain largely unknown. We highlight that SCS seeps are fascinating natural laboratories to better understand methane-driven biogeochemical processes and their signatures in authigenic minerals, representing a rewarding but also challenging object of research in the field of geomicrobiology.

We present here the final report for our research project entitled "The molecular and in vivo functions of the chloroplast chaperonins”. Over the past few decades, intensive investigation of the bacterial GroELS system has led to a basic understanding of how chaperonins refold denatured proteins. However, the parallel is limited in its relevance to plant chaperonins, since the plant system differs from GroEL in genetic complexity, physiological roles of the chaperonins and precise molecular structure. Due to the importance of plant chaperonins for chloroplast biogenesis and Rubisco assembly, research on this topic will have implications for many vital applicative fields such as crop hardiness and efficiency of plant growth as well as the production of alternative energy sources. In this study, we set out to investigate the structure and function of chloroplast chaperonins from A. thaliana. Most plants harbor multiple genes for chaperonin proteins, making analysis of plant chaperonin systems more complicated than the GroEL-GroES system. We decided to focus on the chaperonins from A. thaliana since the genome of this plant has been well defined and many materials are available which can help facilitate studies using this system. Our proposal put forward a number of goals including cloning, purification, and characterization of the chloroplast cpn60 subunits, antibody preparation, gene expression patterns, in vivo analysis of oligomer composition, preparation and characterization of plant deletion mutants, identification of substrate proteins and biophysical studies. In this report, we describe the progress we have made in understanding the structure and function of chloroplast chaperonins in each of these categories.

The fruit surface (exocarp) is a unique tissue with multiple roles influencing fruit growth and development, disease susceptibility, crop yield, post-harvest treatments, shipping and storage quality, and food safety. Furthermore, highly visible exocarp traits are the consumer's first exposure to the fruit, serving to identify fruit type, variety, attractiveness, and market value. Cucurbit fruit, including the closely related Cucumis species, melon (C. melo) and cucumber (C. sativus), exhibit tremendous diversity for fruit surface properties that are not present in model species. In this project, we identified genetic factors influencing Cucumis fruit surface morphology with respect to important quality determinants such as exocarp and flesh color, cuticle deposition, and surface netting. We employed a combination of approaches including: genome-wide association studies (GWAS) utilizing an extensive melon population and the U.S. Plant Introduction (PI) collection for cucumber to identify genomic regions associated with natural variation in fruit surface traits; bulked segregant RNA-seq (BSR-seq) analysis of bi-parental F2:3 or RIL (recombinant inbred line) populations to genomic regions and candidate genes segregating for fruit surface traits; and comparison of syntenic genomic regions and identification of homologous candidate genes. Candidate genes were examined for sequence and/or expression differences during fruit development that correspond with phenotypic differences. Primary outcomes of the work included identification of candidate genes influencing cuticle deposition, epidermal cell structure, surface netting, and intensity of rind and flesh color. Parallel studies identified mutations within the cucumber and melon homologs of the transcription factor WIN1 (WAX INDUCER1) as a significant factor influencing these surface properties. Additional QTL (quantitative trait loci) were identified in both species, and candidate genes in melon include a novel beta-glucosidase involved in lignin production and an integral membrane protein potentially involved in cuticle metabolism. Genetic resources and biochemical approaches have been developed to study cuticle and wax deposition in both species: segregating populations of melon were developed and sequenced for bulked segregant analysis and samples collected for metabolic analysis; an isolation procedure was developed for lipid droplets from cucumber peel and metabolomic analyses have been initiated. Genetic studies in melon identified mutations in a candidate gene (APRR2), associated with light immature rind, and further indicated that this gene is also associated with color intensity of both mature rinds and flesh, making it a good target for breeding. GWAS studies utilizing the cucumber core diversity population are being performed to identify additional sources of variation for fruit surface properties, map QTL, and examine for synteny with melon. Collectively these studies identified genetic regions associated with important quality traits and contributed to our understanding of underlying biological processes associated with fruit surface development. Knowledge of genetic control of these characteristics can facilitate more efficient breeding for important fruit surface traits.

Many social assistance programmes make no explicit provision for displaced people at all. Although refugees have more often been considered in terms of international protection, this has not been the case as regularly for internally displaced people (IDPs). As crises become more prolonged, international support is also likely to decline. Whenever displaced people are included, they are usually considered in terms of the reach or impact of social assistance programmes but are rarely consulted about the design of such programmes. This is often due to political barriers around exclusion by host governments. This paper does not tackle these political barriers but sets out to partially address the exclusion of displaced people from the design and planning of social assistance programming by consulting them in a range of design choices about how they engage with social assistance and what a good social assistance programme would look like. The paper draws on research in two locations (camp and city) in each of three countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lebanon, and Pakistan. Each of these countries has hosted large numbers of displaced people for extensive periods of time but they are otherwise very different contexts. This is therefore a ‘most different’ comparative research design, so common factors across the three countries are particularly important. Research is based on Q method – a relatively unusual methodological approach that has a number of specific advantages in this field. One of the aims of this paper is to test and outline this relatively unusual method, meaning that academics are one of the primary audiences. Displaced participants were consulted directly on their views about the design of social assistance programmes. Rather than expanding on individual perspectives (as focus groups or interviews do) or taking aggregate views of multiple variables (as surveys do), Q allows the identification of groups by individual. Rather than isolating multiple opinions on single points of design, Q allows for the complexity of a single individual’s opinions on multiple points of design and compares these statistically to many other individuals’ opinions of the same design points. This results in the identification of groups of individuals who share similar sets of perspectives, allowing the creation of personas that are statistically representative of the group. This method is set out in detail in the annexe and the resulting personas are presented in section 3. These groups allow us to highlight the key lines of differentiation around important design points. Overall, the paper provides a series of significant directions to consider in the design of formal social assistance programmes. These are expanded on in section 4, but in summary: ● Opinions on design of social assistance fall significantly along gender lines. In all three countries, at least one of the groups was exclusively or mostly comprised of women, meaning that significant groups of women share common opinions on social assistance, which are distinct from men’s opinions. This underlines the importance of consulting men and women separately. ● When looking at the range of opinions particular to women’s groups, some issues stand out, particularly a reluctance to engage with community or neighbourhood organisations that is not shared by groups that are majority men. This is important for the paper’s analysis of informal social assistance. We argue that it is important for formal programmes to recognise the role played by informal social assistance, and the greater sensitivity expressed by women around reliance on neighbourhoods and communities is a significant element of this. ● A second key distinction across all three countries is between urban and ‘camp’ locations, though this was less evident in Lebanon. Urban residents are more likely to demand more from the state in fulfilling its responsibility of managing the population on its territory, and have less confidence in United Nations (UN) agencies. This suggests that displaced people will be more receptive to social assistance programmes that are delivered through or alongside state-based programmes in urban areas. ● A third common point was in support for universality, with very little targeting of particular vulnerable groups. In DRC there was strong support among displaced groups to focus social assistance exclusively on them, though within this focus there was also little support for targeting of specific displaced groups (for ‍example, women, even among the majority women’s groups). ● Significant currents of opinion also emerge around the importance of dignity in support programmes, which is closely linked to anonymity and invisibility in means of receipt of assistance. There are very clear lessons here in ensuring that recipients are not publicly identified in the operation of these programmes. ● The research provides further support for the value of cash, but this is nuanced in situations where vital needs (medicine in the case of DRC) are not available to buy. Generally, those people with experience of receiving cash were more supportive. The design lesson here is that greater support will be needed to introduce and monitor cash in areas where there is limited experience of using cash. ● Finally, research highlights the values of incorporating informal forms of social assistance (from neighbours, family, religious organisations, and community groups) into analysis of more formal sources, even though support for this (as noted earlier) was not universal, highlighting how informal social assistance is far from an ideal alternative to the decline in formal sources of assistance.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a toxic and corrosive gas that commonly occurs in deeply buried sedimentary systems. Understanding its distribution is paramount to creating safe and effective models of H2S occurrence aiding in the identification of high-risk areas. Characterizing subsurface sulfur sources and H2S formation pathways would enhance these models leading to more accurate predictions of potential high H2S regions. However, gaps remain in our understanding of the dominant formation processes and migration pathways of key ingredients for H2S production in the Lower Triassic Montney Formation of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB). Essential to this is assessing the reactants necessary for H2S production, potential pathways for fluid migration, diagenetic history, and changes in redox conditions through time. The Montney Formation has undergone several phases of diagenesis related to post-depositional alteration and multiple cycles of tectonic burial and uplift. Early chemical alteration includes dolomitization and, in some cases, microbial reduction of porewater sulfate to sulfide that occurred prior to significant burial (Davies et al., 1997; Vaisblat et al., 2021; Liseroudi et al., 2020, 2021). The most recent tectonic-related burial during the Laramide Orogeny resulted in burial depths in excess of 3-5 km (Ness, 2001; Ducros et al., 2017) leading to significant thermal and barometric alteration. Associated with this orogenic activity was the reactivation of underlying faults (O'Connell et al., 1990) and development of fractures especially near the deformation front. These fractures provide conduits for fluid migration into the Montney that combined with heat and pressure resulting in hydrocarbon generation, migration, and development of overpressure, notably in the western margin of the basin. In addition, high temperatures resulted in thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) leading to the formation of H2S and subsequently pyrite. We present an interpretation of the Montney subsurface sulfur cycle through the use of petrography, micro- and macro-scale geochemical analysis (isotopic and elemental) to illustrate the complexity of this system. This work relies heavily on previous studies within and outside our research group and incorporates new analytical techniques to expand the toolbox. We aim to guide future research directions and activities by addressing issues related to sampling and data quality issues, analytical approaches, and highlight knowledge gaps.

In 1992 a working group of the UK Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food presented a report on Vacuum Packaging and Associated Processes regarding the microbiological safety of chilled foods. The report supported subsequent guidance provided by the UK Food Standards Agency for the safe manufacture of vacuum packed and modified atmosphere packed chilled foods. In 2021 the ACMSF requested that a new subgroup should update and build on the 1992 report as well as considering, in addition to chilled foods, some foods that are intended to be stored at ambient temperatures. The new subgroup agreed a scope that includes the conditions that support growth and/or neurotoxin formation by C. botulinum, and other clostridia, as well as identification of limiting conditions that provide control. Other foodborne pathogens that need to be considered separately and some foods including raw beef, pork and lamb were explicitly excluded. The subgroup considered the taxonomy, detection, epidemiology, occurrence, growth, survival and risks associated with C. botulinum and other neurotoxin-forming clostridia. There has been no significant change in the nature of foodborne botulism in recent decades except for the identification of rare cases caused by neurotoxigenic C. butyricum, C. baratii and C. sporogenes. Currently evidence indicates that non-clostridia do not pose a risk in relation to foodborne botulism. The subgroup has compiled lists of incidents and outbreaks of botulism, reported in the UK and worldwide, and have reviewed published information concerning growth parameters and control factors in relation to proteolytic C. botulinum, non-proteolytic C. botulinum and the other neurotoxigenic clostridia. The subgroup concluded that the frequency of occurrence of foodborne botulism is very low (very rare but cannot be excluded) with high severity (severe illness: causing life threatening or substantial sequelae or long-term illness). Uncertainty associated with the assessment of the frequency of occurrence, and with the assessment of severity, of foodborne botulism is low (solid and complete data; strong evidence in multiple sources). The vast majority of reported botulism outbreaks, for chilled or ambient stored foods, are identified with proteolytic C. botulinum and temperature abuse is the single most common cause. In the last 30 years, in the UK and worldwide where a cause can be identified, there is evidence that known controls, combined with the correct storage, would have prevented the reported incidents of foodborne botulism. The subgroup recommends that foods should continue to be formulated to control C. botulinum, and other botulinum neurotoxin-producing clostridia, in accordance with the known factors. With regard to these controls, the subgroup recommends some changes to the FSA guidelines that reflect improved information about using combinations of controls, the z-value used to establish equivalent thermal processes and the variable efficacy associated with some controls such as herbs and spices. Current information does not facilitate revision of the current reference process, heating at 90°C for 10 minutes, but there is strong evidence that this provides a lethality that exceeds the target 6 order of magnitude reduction in population size that is widely attributed to the process and the subgroup includes a recommendation that the FSA considers this issue. Early detection and connection of cases and rapid, effective coordinated responses to very rare incidents are identified as crucial elements for reducing risks from foodborne botulism. The subgroup recommends that the FSA works closely with other agencies to establish clear and validated preparedness in relation to potential major incidents of foodborne botulism in the UK.

The research problem. Bacterial spot disease in tomato is of great economic importance worldwide and it is particularly severe in warm and moist areas affecting yield and quality of tomato fruits. Causal agent of spot disease is the Gram-negative bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv), which can be a contaminant on tomato seeds, or survive in plant debris and in association with certain weeds. Despite the economic significance of spot disease, plant protection against Xcvby cultural practices and chemical control have so far proven unsuccessful. In addition, breeding for resistance to bacterial spot in tomato has been undermined by the genetic complexity of the available sources of resistance and by the multiple races of the pathogen. Genetic resistance to specific Xcvraces have been identified in tomato lines that develop a hypersensitive response and additional defense responses upon bacterial challenge. Central goals of this research were: 1. To identify plant genes involved in signaling and defense responses that result in the onset of resistance. 2. To characterize molecular properties and mode of action of bacterial proteins, which function as avirulence or virulence factors during the interaction between Xcvand resistant or susceptible tomato plants, respectively. Our main achievements during this research program are in three major areas: 1. Identification of differentially expressed genes during the resistance response of tomato to Xcvrace T3. A combination of suppression subtractive hybridization and microarray analysis identified a large set of tomato genes that are induced or repressed during the response of resistant plants to avirulent XcvT3 bacteria. These genes were grouped in clusters based on coordinate expression kinetics, and classified into over 20 functional classes. Among them we identified genes that are directly modulated by expression of the type III effector protein AvrXv3 and genes that are induced also during the tomato resistance response to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. 2. Characterization of molecular and biochemical properties of the tomato LeMPK3MAP kinase. A detailed molecular and biochemical analysis was performed for LeMPK3 MAP kinase, which was among the genes induced by XcvT3 in resistant tomato plants. LeMPK3 was induced at the mRNA level by different pathogens, elicitors, and wounding, but not by defense-related plant hormones. Moreover, an induction of LeMPK3 kinase activity was observed in resistant tomato plants upon Xcvinfection. LeMPK3 was biochemically defined as a dual-specificity MAP kinase, and extensively characterized in vitro in terms of kinase activity, sites and mechanism of autophosphorylation, divalent cation preference, Kₘand Vₘₐₓ values for ATP. 3. Characteriztion of molecular properties of the Xcveffector protein AvrRxv. The avirulence gene avrRxvis involved in the genetic interaction that determines tomato resistance to Xcvrace T1. We found that AvrRxv functions inside the plant cell, localizes to the cytoplasm, and is sufficient to confer avirulence to virulent Xcvstrains. In addition, we showed that the AvrRxv cysteine protease catalytic core is essential for host recognition. Finally, insights into cellular processes activated by AvrRxv expression in resistant plants were obtained by microarray analysis of 8,600 tomato genes. Scientific and agricultural significance: The findings of these activities depict a comprehensive and detailed picture of cellular processes taking place during the onset of tomato resistance to Xcv. In this research, a large pool of genes, which may be involved in the control and execution of plant defense responses, was identified and the stage is set for the dissection of signaling pathways specifically triggered by Xcv.

The report provides a review of how risk is conceived of, modelled, and mapped in studies of infectious water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) related diseases. It focuses on spatial epidemiology of cholera, malaria and dengue to offer recommendations for the field of WASH-related disease risk mapping. The report notes a lack of consensus on the definition of disease risk in the literature, which limits the interpretability of the resulting analyses and could affect the quality of the design and direction of public health interventions. In addition, existing risk frameworks that consider disease incidence separately from community vulnerability have conceptual overlap in their components and conflate the probability and severity of disease risk into a single component. The report identifies four methods used to develop risk maps, i) observational, ii) index-based, iii) associative modelling and iv) mechanistic modelling. Observational methods are limited by a lack of historical data sets and their assumption that historical outcomes are representative of current and future risks. The more general index-based methods offer a highly flexible approach based on observed and modelled risks and can be used for partially qualitative or difficult-to-measure indicators, such as socioeconomic vulnerability. For multidimensional risk measures, indices representing different dimensions can be aggregated to form a composite index or be considered jointly without aggregation. The latter approach can distinguish between different types of disease risk such as outbreaks of high frequency/low intensity and low frequency/high intensity. Associative models, including machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), are commonly used to measure current risk, future risk (short-term for early warning systems) or risk in areas with low data availability, but concerns about bias, privacy, trust, and accountability in algorithms can limit their application. In addition, they typically do not account for gender and demographic variables that allow risk analyses for different vulnerable groups. As an alternative, mechanistic models can be used for similar purposes as well as to create spatial measures of disease transmission efficiency or to model risk outcomes from hypothetical scenarios. Mechanistic models, however, are limited by their inability to capture locally specific transmission dynamics. The report recommends that future WASH-related disease risk mapping research: - Conceptualise risk as a function of the probability and severity of a disease risk event. Probability and severity can be disaggregated into sub-components. For outbreak-prone diseases, probability can be represented by a likelihood component while severity can be disaggregated into transmission and sensitivity sub-components, where sensitivity represents factors affecting health and socioeconomic outcomes of infection. -Employ jointly considered unaggregated indices to map multidimensional risk. Individual indices representing multiple dimensions of risk should be developed using a range of methods to take advantage of their relative strengths. -Develop and apply collaborative approaches with public health officials, development organizations and relevant stakeholders to identify appropriate interventions and priority levels for different types of risk, while ensuring the needs and values of users are met in an ethical and socially responsible manner. -Enhance identification of vulnerable populations by further disaggregating risk estimates and accounting for demographic and behavioural variables and using novel data sources such as big data and citizen science. This review is the first to focus solely on WASH-related disease risk mapping and modelling. The recommendations can be used as a guide for developing spatial epidemiology models in tandem with public health officials and to help detect and develop tailored responses to WASH-related disease outbreaks that meet the needs of vulnerable populations. The report’s main target audience is modellers, public health authorities and partners responsible for co-designing and implementing multi-sectoral health interventions, with a particular emphasis on facilitating the integration of health and WASH services delivery contributing to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 (good health and well-being) and 6 (clean water and sanitation).

Executive Summary This report describes a series of experiments carried out by PRICE Lab, a research programme at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) jointly funded by the Central Bank of Ireland, the Commission for Energy Regulation, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Commission for Communications Regulation. The experiments were conducted with samples of Irish consumers aged 18-70 years and were designed to answer the following general research question: At what point do products become too complex for consumers to choose accurately between the good ones and the bad ones? BACKGROUND AND METHODS PRICE Lab represents a departure from traditional methods employed for economic research in Ireland. It belongs to the rapidly expanding area of ‘behavioural economics’, which is the application of psychological insights to economic analysis. In recent years, behavioural economics has developed novel methods and generated many new findings, especially in relation to the choices made by consumers. These scientific advances have implications both for economics and for policy. They suggest that consumers often do not make decisions in the way that economists have traditionally assumed. The findings show that consumers have limited capacity for attending to and processing information and that they are prone to systematic biases, all of which may lead to disadvantageous choices. In short, consumers may make costly mistakes. Research has indeed documented that in several key consumer markets, including financial services, utilities and telecommunications, many consumers struggle to choose the best products for themselves. It is often argued that these markets involve ‘complex’ products. The obvious question that arises is whether consumer policy can be used to help them to make better choices when faced with complex products. Policies are more likely to be successful where they are informed by an accurate understanding of how real consumers make decisions between products. To provide evidence for consumer policy, PRICE Lab has developed a method for measuring the accuracy with which consumers make choices, using techniques adapted from the scientific study of human perception. The method allows researchers to measure how reliably consumers can distinguish a good deal from a bad one. A good deal is defined here as one where the product is more valuable than the price paid. In other words, it offers good value for money or, in the jargon of economics, offers the consumer a ‘surplus’. Conversely, a bad deal offers poor value for money, providing no (or a negative) surplus. PRICE Lab’s main experimental method, which we call the ‘Surplus Identification’ (S-ID) task, allows researchers to measure how accurately consumers can spot a surplus and whether they are prone to systematic biases. Most importantly, the S-ID task can be used to study how the accuracy of consumers’ decisions changes as the type of product changes. For the experiments we report here, samples of consumers arrived at the ESRI one at a time and spent approximately one hour doing the S-ID task with different kinds of products, which were displayed on a computer screen. They had to learn to judge the value of one or more products against prices and were then tested for accuracy. As well as people’s intrinsic motivation to do well when their performance on a task like this is tested, we provided an incentive: one in every ten consumers who attended PRICE Lab won a prize, based on their performance. Across a series of these experiments, we were able to test how the accuracy of consumers’ decisions was affected by the number and nature of the product’s characteristics, or ‘attributes’, which they had to take into account in order to distinguish good deals from bad ones. In other words, we were able to study what exactly makes for a ‘complex’ product, in the sense that consumers find it difficult to choose good deals. FINDINGS Overall, across all ten experiments described in this report, we found that consumers’ judgements of the value of products against prices were surprisingly inaccurate. Even when the product was simple, meaning that it consisted of just one clearly perceptible attribute (e.g. the product was worth more when it was larger), consumers required a surplus of around 16-26 per cent of the total price range in order to be able to judge accurately that a deal was a good one rather than a bad one. Put another way, when most people have to map a characteristic of a product onto a range of prices, they are able to distinguish at best between five and seven levels of value (e.g. five levels might be thought of as equivalent to ‘very bad’, ‘bad’, ‘average’, ‘good’, ‘very good’). Furthermore, we found that judgements of products against prices were not only imprecise, but systematically biased. Consumers generally overestimated what products at the top end of the range were worth and underestimated what products at the bottom end of the range were worth, typically by as much as 10-15 per cent and sometimes more. We then systematically increased the complexity of the products, first by adding more attributes, so that the consumers had to take into account, two, three, then four different characteristics of the product simultaneously. One product might be good on attribute A, not so good on attribute B and available at just above the xii | PRICE Lab: An Investigation of Consumers’ Capabilities with Complex Products average price; another might be very good on A, middling on B, but relatively expensive. Each time the consumer’s task was to judge whether the deal was good or bad. We would then add complexity by introducing attribute C, then attribute D, and so on. Thus, consumers had to negotiate multiple trade-offs. Performance deteriorated quite rapidly once multiple attributes were in play. Even the best performers could not integrate all of the product information efficiently – they became substantially more likely to make mistakes. Once people had to consider four product characteristics simultaneously, all of which contributed equally to the monetary value of the product, a surplus of more than half the price range was required for them to identify a good deal reliably. This was a fundamental finding of the present experiments: once consumers had to take into account more than two or three different factors simultaneously their ability to distinguish good and bad deals became strikingly imprecise. This finding therefore offered a clear answer to our primary research question: a product might be considered ‘complex’ once consumers must take into account more than two or three factors simultaneously in order to judge whether a deal is good or bad. Most of the experiments conducted after we obtained these strong initial findings were designed to test whether consumers could improve on this level of performance, perhaps for certain types of products or with sufficient practice, or whether the performance limits uncovered were likely to apply across many different types of product. An examination of individual differences revealed that some people were significantly better than others at judging good deals from bad ones. However the differences were not large in comparison to the overall effects recorded; everyone tested struggled once there were more than two or three product attributes to contend with. People with high levels of numeracy and educational attainment performed slightly better than those without, but the improvement was small. We also found that both the high level of imprecision and systematic bias were not reduced substantially by giving people substantial practice and opportunities to learn – any improvements were slow and incremental. A series of experiments was also designed to test whether consumers’ capability was different depending on the type of product attribute. In our initial experiments the characteristics of the products were all visual (e.g., size, fineness of texture, etc.). We then performed similar experiments where the relevant product information was supplied as numbers (e.g., percentages, amounts) or in categories (e.g., Type A, Rating D, Brand X), to see whether performance might improve. This question is important, as most financial and contractual information is supplied to consumers in a numeric or categorical form. The results showed clearly that the type of product information did not matter for the level of imprecision and bias in consumers’ decisions – the results were essentially the same whether the product attributes were visual, numeric or categorical. What continued to drive performance was how many characteristics the consumer had to judge simultaneously. Thus, our findings were not the result of people failing to perceive or take in information accurately. Rather, the limiting factor in consumers’ capability was how many different factors they had to weigh against each other at the same time. In most of our experiments the characteristics of the product and its monetary value were related by a one-to-one mapping; each extra unit of an attribute added the same amount of monetary value. In other words, the relationships were all linear. Because other findings in behavioural economics suggest that consumers might struggle more with non-linear relationships, we designed experiments to test them. For example, the monetary value of a product might increase more when the amount of one attribute moves from very low to low, than when it moves from high to very high. We found that this made no difference to either the imprecision or bias in consumers’ decisions provided that the relationship was monotonic (i.e. the direction of the relationship was consistent, so that more or less of the attribute always meant more or less monetary value respectively). When the relationship involved a turning point (i.e. more of the attribute meant higher monetary value but only up to a certain point, after which more of the attribute meant less value) consumers’ judgements were more imprecise still. Finally, we tested whether familiarity with the type of product improved performance. In most of the experiments we intentionally used products that were new to the experimental participants. This was done to ensure experimental control and so that we could monitor learning. In the final experiment reported here, we used two familiar products (Dublin houses and residential broadband packages) and tested whether consumers could distinguish good deals from bad deals any better among these familiar products than they could among products that they had never seen before, but which had the same number and type of attributes and price range. We found that consumers’ performance was the same for these familiar products as for unfamiliar ones. Again, what primarily determined the amount of imprecision and bias in consumers’ judgments was the number of attributes that they had to balance against each other, regardless of whether these were familiar or novel. POLICY IMPLICATIONS There is a menu of consumer polices designed to assist consumers in negotiating complex products. A review, including international examples, is given in the main body of the report. The primary aim is often to simplify the consumer’s task. Potential policies, versions of which already exist in various forms and which cover a spectrum of interventionist strength, might include: the provision and endorsement of independent, transparent price comparison websites and other choice engines (e.g. mobile applications, decision software); the provision of high quality independent consumer advice; ‘mandated simplification’, whereby regulations stipulate that providers must present product information in a simplified and standardised format specifically determined by regulation; and more strident interventions such as devising and enforcing prescriptive rules and regulations in relation to permissible product descriptions, product features or price structures. The present findings have implications for such policies. However, while the experimental findings have implications for policy, it needs to be borne in mind that the evidence supplied here is only one factor in determining whether any given intervention in markets is likely to be beneficial. The findings imply that consumers are likely to struggle to choose well in markets with products consisting of multiple important attributes that must all be factored in when making a choice. Interventions that reduce this kind of complexity for consumers may therefore be beneficial, but nothing in the present research addresses the potential costs of such interventions, or how providers are likely to respond to them. The findings are also general in nature and are intended to give insights into consumer choices across markets. There are likely to be additional factors specific to certain markets that need to be considered in any analysis of the costs and benefits of a potential policy change. Most importantly, the policy implications discussed here are not specific to Ireland or to any particular product market. Furthermore, they should not be read as criticisms of existing regulatory regimes, which already go to some lengths in assisting consumers to deal with complex products. Ireland currently has extensive regulations designed to protect consumers, both in general and in specific markets, descriptions of which can be found in Section 9.1 of the main report. Nevertheless, the experiments described here do offer relevant guidance for future policy designs. For instance, they imply that while policies that make it easier for consumers to switch providers may be necessary to encourage active consumers, they may not be sufficient, especially in markets where products are complex. In order for consumers to benefit, policies that help them to identify better deals reliably may also be required, given the scale of inaccuracy in consumers’ decisions that we record in this report when products have multiple important attributes. Where policies are designed to assist consumer decisions, the present findings imply quite severe limits in relation to the volume of information consumers can simultaneously take into account. Good impartial Executive Summary | xv consumer advice may limit the volume of information and focus on ensuring that the most important product attributes are recognised by consumers. The findings also have implications for the role of competition. While consumers may obtain substantial potential benefits from competition, their capabilities when faced with more complex products are likely to reduce such benefits. Pressure from competition requires sufficient numbers of consumers to spot and exploit better value offerings. Given our results, providers with larger market shares may face incentives to increase the complexity of products in an effort to dampen competitive pressure and generate more market power. Where marketing or pricing practices result in prices or attributes with multiple components, our findings imply that consumer choices are likely to become less accurate. Policymakers must of course be careful in determining whether such practices amount to legitimate innovations with potential consumer benefit. Yet there is a genuine danger that spurious complexity can be generated that confuses consumers and protects market power. The results described here provide backing for the promotion and/or provision by policymakers of high-quality independent choice engines, including but not limited to price comparison sites, especially in circumstances where the number of relevant product attributes is high. A longer discussion of the potential benefits and caveats associated with such policies is contained in the main body of the report. Mandated simplification policies are gaining in popularity internationally. Examples include limiting the number of tariffs a single energy company can offer or standardising health insurance products, both of which are designed to simplify the comparisons between prices and/or product attributes. The present research has some implications for what might make a good mandate. Consumer decisions are likely to be improved where a mandate brings to the consumer’s attention the most important product attributes at the point of decision. The present results offer guidance with respect to how many key attributes consumers are able simultaneously to trade off, with implications for the design of standardised disclosures. While bearing in mind the potential for imposing costs, the results also suggest benefits to compulsory ‘meta-attributes’ (such as APRs, energy ratings, total costs, etc.), which may help consumers to integrate otherwise separate sources of information. FUTURE RESEARCH The experiments described here were designed to produce findings that generalise across multiple product markets. However, in addition to the results outlined in this report, the work has resulted in new experimental methods that can be applied to more specific consumer policy issues. This is possible because the methods generate experimental measures of the accuracy of consumers’ decision-making. As such, they can be adapted to assess the quality of consumers’ decisions in relation to specific products, pricing and marketing practices. Work is underway in PRICE Lab that applies these methods to issues in specific markets, including those for personal loans, energy and mobile phones.