Using the COVID-19 database of Johns Hopkins University, this study examines the determinants of the case fatality rate of COVID-19. We consider various potential determinants of the mortality risk of COVID-19 in 120 countries. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and the Kernel-based Regularized Least Squares (KRLS) estimations show that internal and external conflicts are positively related to the case fatality rates. This evidence is robust to the exclusion of countries across different regions. Thus, the evidence indicates that conflict may explain significant differences in the case fatality rate of COVID-19 across countries.

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This paper describes a performance monitoring and test system for grid-connected photovoltaic systems. The purpose of the research is to develop an on-site test platform to collect the data and evaluate the performance of the grid-connected PV system. The performance monitoring and test system consists of a meteorological data collection system for measuring meteorological parameters (e.g. irradiance, ambient air temperature, etc.), a set of data collection boxes for measuring electrical parameters (e.g. DC current, DC voltage, AC current, AC voltage, AC power, etc.) and a PC. The collected data have been transmitted to the PC by two methods, wired transmission and wireless transmission. The software of the data acquisition system based on LabVIEW (Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench) package is used to process, display and store the collected data in the PC disk. The performance monitoring and test system was installed in a grid-connected building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system for an on-site measurement in Gejiang province in China. The obtained results demonstrate that it has the ability for data collecting, processing and analyzing and it meets the requirement of the performance evaluation for a gridconnected PV system.

In order to assess electrical performance measurement method of concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules, a test bed of module I-V characteristics is established in the Institute of Electrical Engineering of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. The relative and absolute output power of CPV modules are measured using test methods of both IEC and ASTM standards. I-V characteristics under Concentrator Standard Test Condition (CSTC) are also compared and analyzed according to on-site I-V test result. This paper also discusses temperature and direct normal irradiance correction procedures, results and problems of relevant IEC standards. An experiment is implemented for calculating and comparing temperature dependence of each electrical parameter of CPV modules.

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