206 research outputs found
Evaluation of Transparent Iron Oxide Pigment in Ink and Plastic Vehicle Systems
No full textiii, 72 p.The purpose of this project is to evaluate transparent iron oxide pigment in ink and plastic vehicle systems. Since considerable background information will be necessary, this paper will be broken down into four sections. First, a general background of pigments, second, a background for inks, third, a background for plastics, and fourth, the procedure and results of this study.BASF Wyandotte Corporation, Wyandotte, M
Trading arrangements and industrial development
Get PDFHow do different trading arrangements influence the industrialization process of developing countries? Can preferential trading arrangements (PTAs) be superior to multilateral liberalization, or at least an alternative when multilateral liberalization proceeds slowly? If so, what form should the PTAs take? Are developing countries better advised to seek PTAs with industrial countries or among themselves? Traditional analysis of these issues has been based on the idea of trade creation and trade diversion. The problem with this analysis is that it starts from assuming a pattern of comparative advantage of newly industrialized countries. The experience of these countries suggests the need for an analysis in which the pattern of comparative advantage is not set in stone but is potentially flexible, and in which less developed countries can develop and converge in both income and economic structure to industrial economies. The authors outline an alternative approach for analyzing the role of trade in promoting industrial development. There are few fundamental differences between countries that generate immutable patterns of comparative advantage. Instead the pattern of trade and development in the world economy is determined mainly by history. Cumulative causation has created concentrations of industrial activity in particular locations (industrial countries) and left other areas more dependent on primary activities. Economic development can be thought of as the spread of these concentrations from country to country. Different trading arrangements may have a major impact on this development process. By changing the attractiveness of countries as a base for manufacturing production they can potentially trigger or postpone industrial development. This approach explains why firms are reluctant to move to economies that have lower wages and labor costs, and shows how trade liberalization can change the incentives to become established in developing countries. It provides a mechanism through which import liberalization can have a powerful effect in promoting industrialization. And it suggests that import liberalization may create or amplify differences between liberalizing countries with the possible political tensions this may create. While these features are consistent with the world economy, they fall short of providing convincing empirical support for the approach. Using the approach, the authors derive number of conclusions about the effects of trade liberalization. First, that unilaterally liberalizing imports of manufactures can promote development of the local manufacturing industry. The mechanism is forward linkages from imported intermediates, but this may be interpreted as part of a wider package of linkages coming from these imports. Second, the gains from liberalization through PTA membership are likely to exceed those obtained from unilateral action. South-South PTAs will be sensitive to the market size of member states, and North-South PTAs seem to offer better prospects for participating Southern economies, if not for North and excluded countries. Third, the effects of particular schemes (such as the division of benefits between Southern economies) will depend on the characteristics of the countries and cross-country differences in these characteristics.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Labor Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Trade and Regional Integration,Water and Industry
Highlights of Library Automation related documents in the INSPEC
Get PDFThe paper has attempted to analyse the Library Automation related records in the INSPEC (1969 to July 2004). The growth of Library Automation related literature, country of input, scattering of literature in different publication types, core journals publishing Library Automation related publications, language-wise proportion of the literature, content analysis through keywords/descriptors, availability of URLs (Universal Resource Locator) for full text articles as alternative locations were the main focus of the study. After the year 1984, the literature grows approximately linearly with a growth rate of about 600 items per year. The USA is the predominant publishing country of Library Automation related literature. Journals are the most preferred publication media, followed by Conference/Proceedings-Papers, Book-Chapters, and Reports publications. Most productive journals are: Library Hi Tech, followed by Computers in Libraries, VINE, Information Technology and Libraries, and Program. English articles constitute 91.83% of the total literature. That means the non-English articles constitute only 8.17%. The keyword analysis indicates that the key areas of Library Automation were cataloguing; academic-libraries; information-retrieval; Internet; and information-services. The most occurred URL was http://www.dlib.org/ as alternative locations in the availability notes of Library Automation related records
Modification and sensitivity of equilibria in partially characterized genetic networks
No full textThesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2018.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (page 68).Engineering intracellular biological control systems, whether to perform artificial functions or to modify existing behavior, requires accurate characterization of genetic networks. Slight errors in characterization lead to significant changes in predicted behavior, and consequently to design errors that are difficult to debug. Metabolic engineering provides an empirical solution to this problem by varying many system parameters simultaneously to optimize the steady state level of a particular chemical species. Such approaches, though effective, require significant customization for the systems being studied. Here I propose and investigate, in silico via generation and analysis of random genetic networks, a more general approach in which a small number of modifications, selected empirically, are made to genetic networks. We found that feedback loop based modifications were most effective, and that responses to modifications depended significantly on network structure. Our work serves to advance a potential technique for efficient empirical design and modification of genetic networks.by Arvind Thiagarajan.M. Eng
A global strategy for the deployment of humidification-dehumidification technology
No full textThesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 2011.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 88-95).The world is suffering from a severe shortage of potable water. This effect is most noticeable in third-world regions, specifically in rural Africa and Asia. In these regions, clean water exhaustion has resulted in a myriad of negative affects such as diarrhea, infant death syndrome, hepatitis, and malaria. These sicknesses continue to take a serious economic and humanitarian toll on communities. By reducing the resources spent on these needless water related medical expenditures, clean water acts as an enabling good, alleviating poverty and increasing rural wellbeing. HDH technology, which has been compared against competing technologies in the field, has several advantages over other desalination technologies when providing this good to rural markets. While the installed material cost of HDH has been approximated to be about ten times greater than optimized competitors such as reverse osmosis, HDH has virtually no maintenance cost or complexity, it scales reliably to low generating capacities, and it uses abundant solar heat instead of often unavailable electrical sources. Furthermore, the detailed market analysis in this paper shows that there are clearly markets which are ripe for HDH adoption, specifically the district of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal. Finally, multiple successful case studies have been investigated to compose an implementation plan, through which millions of dollars in profit are realistically realizable. Overall, HDH technology has key advantages which should help it towards successful commercialization.by Arvind Chari.M.Eng
India’s Long Road: The Search for Prosperity by Vijay Joshi
No full textVijay Joshi‟s India’s Long Road: The Search for Prosperity is an important addition to the list of books on the Indian economy–Jean Dréze and Amartya Sen‟s An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions and Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya‟s Why Growth Matters: How Economic Growth in India Reduced Poverty and the Lessons for Other Developing Countries–written for the interested general reader as well as the specialist. In addition, those readers familiar with the literature assessing and evaluating India‟s economic reforms will remember Joshi as the co-author of India: Macroeconomics and Political Economy, 1964-1991(1994) and India's Economic Reforms, 1991-2001(1996) along with the late I. M. D. Little
Sensitivity analysis on numerical modeling to simulate the flexural shear failure for reinforced concrete beams without stirrups
No full textFlexural shear failure is a brittle failure mode that can occur in reinforced concrete (RC) beams without stirrups due to the combination of flexural and shear stresses. The failure mode begins with vertical flexural cracks at the bottom of the RC beam central span area due to flexural tensile stresses, followed by diagonal cracks. During stabilization, a diagonal crack enlarges, leading to flexural shear failure. The failure mode is brittle due to the significant bearing capacity reduction making it more difficult to predict.Accurately predicting the capacity of concrete structures is important for ensuring their safety, especially in the case of brittle failures. Various design codes are available to design and assess such structures, but an advanced numerical method called the Non-Linear Finite Element Analysis (NLFEA) is an alternative to these codes. NLFEA allows for more detailed and accurate modeling of the structure behavior by considering material, geometry, and boundary conditions nonlinearity. By using NLFEA, engineers can optimize their design and gain a deeper understanding of the behavior of RC beams without stirrups. The NLFEA model requires several modeling decisions to accurately simulate the structures’ behavior. Sensitivity analysis on different modeling aspects is crucial to obtain a numerical model that can accurately simulate the RC beam. To be considered accurate, the numerical model should simulate approximately the same damage progression, failure mode, and failure load compared to the experiments. The sensitivity analysis is performed to modeling aspects with uncertainties identified during the literature review. These uncertainties are in the constitutive model, finite element discretization, and analysis procedure modeling aspects. Sensitivity analysis on various modeling aspects is per-formed using four experimental beams with distinct geometrical sizes, while some material configura-tions differ. This research investigates whether, using sensitivity analysis, a numerical model can be obtained that accurately simulates flexural shear failure for RC beams without stirrups.The total strain crack models’ crack orientation sensitivity analysis shows that the rotating crack orientation can suffer from over-rotation, which causes delamination of the concrete cover. Over-rotation also shows a strong correlation with many non-converged steps. In addition, the fixed crack orientation simulates a more realistic representation of the experimental failure mode. The compression-compression confinement sensitivity analysis shows that this modeling aspect does not influence simulations for cases with flexural shear failure much and can thus be excluded. A slightly lower failure load is simulated with the confined numerical model for one of the four cases. The sensitivity analysis on the FIB bond-slip relation and Shima bond-slip relation reveals that the former has a lower initial stiffness when using the same material configurations for their modeling assumptions. Due to the lower initial stiffness, there is a higher relative displacement between the concrete and reinforcement. In some cases, this results in either increased convergence problems, a higher possibility of dowel failure, a lower failure load, or a combination of them. For the fourth sensitivity analysis modeling aspect, the full Newton-Raphson (NR) iteration scheme simulations are slightly more representative of the experiment than the Secant iteration scheme. This result is obtained despite the full NR scheme having more convergence problems during the initial crack. In addition, for a few cases, the Secant iteration scheme simulates symmetrical flexural shear failure due to failing to include material nonlinearity. Sensitivity analysis of the reinforcement elements shows that simulations with truss elements are more accurate than beam elements. The beam elements models show compatibility issues when combined with plane stress elements. The interface elements fail to correctly tie the beam elements’ extra rotational degree of freedom to the transitional degree of freedom. This incompatibility results in convergence problems. Also, higher relative displacements and a higher stiffness after the initial crack is noticed in some cases compared to the experiment. The final sensitivity analysis reveals that the element size sensitivity increases with an increase in the geometrical beam size. Too-large element sizes decrease the accuracy of simulations. In contrast, too-small element sizes increase the computational cost but can also simulate irregular crack patterns not representative of the experiment. A formula is introduced from the sensitivity analysis for beams up to a depth of 1200 mm to predict an appropriate element size. The sensitivity analysis reveals that the most accurate numerical model is a fixed crack orientation and the Shima bond-slip relation combined with truss elements using the full NR iteration scheme. The sensitivity analysis is followed by a quantitative analysis of 76 experimental cases to verify the accuracy of the obtained numerical model for a broad range of differently configured experimental cases. Analysis shows that dowel failure can get captured due to an excessive change in the dam-age-based shear retention factor using the obtained numerical model. However, decreasing sensitive load step sizes to very small ones results in flexural shear failure. Also, the quantitative simulations show that the numerical model simulations are largely accurate, with 62 simulated cases below a failure load percentage difference of 10 % compared to the experiment. The average percentage difference is 6 % between the simulations and the experiment.Analysis shows that this research successfully obtains a numerical model that accurately simulates flexural shear failure for RC beams without stirrups. The information obtained from this research can be used to make modeling choices. In addition, some uncertainties for other modeling aspects are introduced for future research. These modeling aspects are the shear retention model, concrete elements compatibility with the reinforcements beam elements, and the global element size for beams deeper than 1200 mm.Applied Physic
Inquiry into the determinants of long-run investment performance
Get PDFThesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, September 2006.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-59).This thesis presents an inquiry into the historical performance of core institutional real estate investment property during the 1984-2003 period. The focus of the analysis is on identifying systematic determinants of long run investment performance. The analysis seeks to increase our understanding of equilibrium asset pricing within this asset class, as well to provide some useful perspective for core portfolio strategic or tactical planning. This thesis extends earlier research by Geltner (1999) and Li and Price (2005) that indicated that a classical single-factor CAPM accurately modeled the cross-section of long-run total returns across the major asset classes, including real estate. The present thesis narrows that earlier focus to concentrate on the cross-section of long-run total return performance within the core institutional real estate asset class. This thesis uses the property level data of the NCREIF Index to construct portfolios and historical return indexes based on property size (value), and based on CBSA "tier" (that is, "upper", "middle", and "tertiary" cities from an institutional investment perspective). By using unique portfolios created from the NCREIF property set that represent possible factors that systematically affect asset pricing, such as property location, property size and property type, and calculating their beta estimates from historical data, this thesis tests various CAPM models including the single factor Sharpe-Linter model, as well as a multi factor Fama-French-like model. The beta for the portfolios was defined with respect to the performance of the aggregate of all NCREIF properties. This thesis finds that an equilibrium asset pricing model consisting of the two Fama-French-like factors, property size and MSA tier, plus property type dummy variables, explains some 90% of the long-run historical cross-section of core property portfolio returns. Interestingly, the "market factor", the beta with respect to aggregate NCREIF, is found to be insignificant, and possibly a negative influence on expected return. Furthermore, the size factor works opposite to the way it does in the stock market, with larger properties commanding an expected return premium. Surprisingly, the city "tier" factor gives an expected return premium to upper tier cities. Tests for an "income factor" (similar to the Fama-French book-to-market factor) found this factor to be insignificant. The most significant factor was found to be the property type. Thus, the equilibrium asset price model that seems to work well within the institutional core real estate asset class seems to be very different from, almost opposite to, the analogous model within the stock market.by Arvind Pai.S.M
Applicability of e-Payment protocols for m-Commerce
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Global trends in raw materials consumption
Get PDFThis paper reviews movements in raw materials consumption over the past 30 years. Included in this review are all base metals and steel, and important agricultural raw materials. These primary commodities share the common characteristic that they are used as inputs in manufacturing and construction. Some metals and minerals, energy commodities, and timber products are not included in this review for various reasons. The period reviewed is from 1961 to 1988. A prominent characteristic of the metals market during the past 15 years has been its very slow growth. In some years consumption of several raw materials has even declined. Explaining the causes of this slowdown, in the face of moderate economic growth, has become a topical issue. The slowdown has important implications for a number of developing countries that rely heavily on exports of these materials. The severity and persistence of post-1973 declines in metals intensity per unit of GNP, prompted the conjecture that it may have been structural. This paper reviews the debate on this issue, including results of statistical tests. It also summarizes the trends in raw materials consumption and reviews the technological developments relating to raw materials consumption.Mining&Extractive Industry (Non-Energy),Montreal Protocol,Sanitation and Sewerage,Primary Metals,Environmental Economics&Policies
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