61 research outputs found
A new approach to product development in Islamic finance
No full textThesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, June 2009."September 2008." Title page has the copyright date of 1994.Includes bibliographical references.Islamic Finance is a banking sector which caters to the Muslim population's banking needs by complying with the Islamic financial law. In this research some of the most prevalent financial products in Islamic Finance are surveyed and various forms of Islamic asset securitizations (Sukuks) are studied. Two issues of Islamic asset securitizations (Sukuks) are analyzed in detail. This analysis involves determining how well Sukuks serve the needs of Islamic Finance customers and also their shortcomings. In order to develop more customer-need centric financial products in Islamic Finance a new product development template is proposed. This template is a step-by-step process of developing Islamic financial products and is derived from the best practices of product development in the engineering domain. This methodology aims to formalize and improve the product development process in Islamic Finance. As an illustration of the proposed template, a new product is developed for Islamic Finance using this template. This example illustrates how religious restrictions in Islamic Finance dictate the form and substance of financial products during their development.by Muhammad Rehan Tahir.S.M
MoO3 altered ZnO: A suitable choice for the photocatalytic removal of chloro-acetic acids in natural sunlight exposure
No full textThe MoO3 coated ZnO photocatalysts were synthesized for the optimum harvesting of the absorbed ultraviolet sunlight photons by initially permeating Mo6+ ions at the surface of pre-synthesized ZnO and finally transformed to MoO3 by thermal treatment in the air. The absorption spectra of the synthesized powders revealed the extension of the absorption edge in the visible region whereas, the photoluminescence spectroscopy established the supporting role of the MoO3 coating in gradually plummeting the excitons recombination. The growth of additional peaks in Raman as well as X-ray photoelectron spectra and the appearance of the corresponding low-intensity reflection substantiated the surface prevalence of MoO3. The absence of the individual particles of MoO3 in FESEM and the verification of coated layer by HRTEM images validated the authenticity of the adopted synthetic route. The electrochemical evaluation of the synthesized powders under illumination revealed the complete elimination of photocorrosion and the synergic role of the MoO3 layer for improved trap and transfer of charge carriers. The evaluation of the flat-band potentials of the coated powders by Mott-Schottky analysis revealed the suitability of the conduction band edges for the generation of superoxide anion radicals. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized powders was assessed for the removal of chloro derivatives (mono-, di-, trichloroacetic acids) in comparison to pure acetic acid. A significant effect of the stability, polarity and stereochemical structure of the substrate on the photocatalytic removal process was observed and discussed. The experimental evidences from the time-scale chemical analysis were interpreted for the identification of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) involved in the degradation/mineralization process. The validation of the Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic model was also examined. Efforts were made to estimate the plausible route of the degradation/mineralization process
Suicidal and homicidal tendencies after Lyme disease: an ignored problem
No full textAitzaz Munir,1 Muhammad Aadil,2 Ahmad Rehan Khan3 1Department of Psychiatry, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA; 2Department of Psychiatry, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA; 3Department of Psychiatry, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA We would like to applaud the author for conducting such an important study by performing a comprehensive assessment of suicide and its association with Lyme-associated diseases (LADs).1 It is the first study of its kind, and it raises a need for further investigation on this subject. Suicide is a major health care issue in the USA, contributing to almost 42,773 deaths in the USA in 2014.2 There is no data available specific to suicide associated with LAD. Dr Bransfield inferred the possible prevalence of suicide associated with LAD by an indirect method which revealed that 414,540 patients with LAD have suicidal ideation, 31,100 attempt suicide and a total of 1,244 commit suicide in the USA per year from LAD.1,2 View the original paper by Bransfield. 
Recent developments in natural gas flaring reduction and reformation to energy-efficient fuels: A review
No full textAnnually billions of cubic meters of natural gas are flared around the globe at various oil and gas production sites. Natural gas flaring practices waste valuable energy resources that can be used for economic support and will also be beneficial to mitigate global warming effects. In this review, an overview of natural gas flaring impacts with respect to the environment with special emphasis on global annual natural gas flaring emissions and their reformation to energy-efficient fuels has been discussed. Initially, natural gas flaring emissions and their impacts in view of environmental pollution and global warming effects have been highlighted. The strategies to mitigate wastage to valuable energy resources through various flaring management strategies are also evaluated. In the main stream, various gas flaring reductions and utilization technologies based on their applications in the oil and gas industry and especially for remote oil and gas fields are discussed. Liquified natural gas (LNG) and compressed natural gas (CNG) technologies have been identified as the main gas flaring reduction methods based on their applicability, commerciality, and economical potential. In addition, gas to liquid (GTL) has been an advancing technology for the past many years toward its utilization of methane as a feed and converting it to useful industrial products such as synthesis crude and methanol. Finally, reformation technologies for synthesis gas (syngas) production such as thermal reforming, plasma reforming, and photoreforming are deliberated. Based on feed gas mixture, different reforming processes such as steam reforming of methane (SRM), dry reforming of methane (DRM), and bi-reforming of methane (BRM) are evaluated for hydrogen-rich syngas production. The future perspectives regarding gas flaring utilization technologies advancement with further improvements in utilization of flared gas to efficient energy fuels are proposed
Estimating Passenger Car Equivalent Factors for Heterogeneous Traffic Using Occupancy-Density Linear Regression Model
No full textA variety of methods have been proposed in the existing literature for the estimation of passenger car equivalent (PCE) factors. These methods are based on the comparison of selected attributes of different vehicles. This research, for the first time, utilizes the basic notion of the linear relationship between road area occupancy and density for the estimation of PCE factors for different vehicle types in heterogeneous traffic. Aerial photographs obtained from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) were analyzed to estimate the road area occupancy and the number of vehicles classified in seven selected groups. A linear least-squares regression model was developed between road area occupancy and classified vehicle count. The coefficients of the occupancy-density linear regression model were used to estimate PCE and motorcycle equivalent (MCE) factors. The comparison of the estimated set of PCE values with the values reported in the literature shows that PCE factors estimated using the proposed method are reasonable and produce a better occupancy-density relationship than the other studies. In comparison with the existing methods that rely on lane-based measurements, the proposed method is well suited for traffic with weak/no lane discipline, as it considers the entire road width and the dynamics of lateral movement of different types of vehicles. The proposed method does not need extensive traffic data of speeds, headways, flow rates, and so forth, and is applicable on aerial photographs obtained from other sources, such as satellites.Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported with funding from Exascale Open Data Analytics Lab, National Center for Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC) and the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.
Acknowledgments
The authors are thankful to research students Syed Hassan Ali, Haseeb Ahmed, Zohaib Ahmed, Aqib Abbasi, Asad Rehan, Mirza Ali Haider, Syed Abbas Hasan Zaidi, and Omema for their help in this research
Waste Biorefineries: Future Energy, Green Products and Waste Treatment
No full textThis eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contac
Prediction of carbon dioxide emissions from Atlantic Canadian potato fields using advanced hybridized machine learning algorithms: Nexus of field data and modelling
No full textIn this study, three novel machine learning algorithms of additive regression-random forest (AR-RF), Iterative Classifier Optimizer (ICO-AR-RF), and multi-scheme (MS-RF) were explored for carbon dioxide (CO2) flux rate prediction from three agricultural fields. To build the dataset, 401 samples were collected from two fields in Prince Edward Island (PEI) and 122 samples from the New Brunswick (NB), Canada. In addition, soil moisture (SM), temperature (ST), and electrical conductivity (EC), alongside eight climatic variables including wind speed (WS), solar radiation (SR), relative humidity (RH), precipitation (PCP), air temperature (AT), dew point (DP), vapour pressure difference (VPD) and reference evapotranspiration (ETo) were also collected. Greedy stepwise (GS) approach was implemented for feature selection. Finally, different qualitative (scatter plot, line graph, Taylor diagram, box plot, and Rug plot), and quantitative (uncertainty analysis, root mean square error (RMSE), percent of BIAS (PBIAS), Nash Sutcliff efficiency (NSE) and RMSE-observations standard deviation ratio (RSR)) techniques were used for model evaluation and comparison. Results of feature selection approaches revealed that DP, AT, SM, and ST are the four most effective variables at CO2 prediction in PEI, while AT, RH, DP, and ST are the most effective in the NB study area. For optimum input scenario, the GS algorithm was applied, and results showed that a combination of DP, AT, ST, SM, and ETo was the best for the PEI study area, while for NB, all input variables should be involved. Our analysis, for prediction of CO2 fluxes, confirmed that the ICO-AR-RF model performed the best at both PEI (RMSE=0.70, NSE=0.76, PBIAS=-5.11, RSR=0.48) and NB (RMSE=0.74, NSE=0.75, PBIAS=3.23, RSR=0.50), followed by MS-RF and AR-RF. Uncertainty analysis showed that CO2 prediction is more sensitive to input scenario selection than models in both study areas. Results revealed that climatic variables are more effective in CO2 prediction than soil characteristics and the developed hybrid model ICO-AR-RF can be a promising tool for decision-makers and beneficial for stakeholders.Atlantic Canada Opportunities AgencyGovernment of CanadaNatural Science and Engineering Council of CanadaDepartment of Energy, Environment and Climate ActionGovernment of Prince Edward Islan
Waste Biorefineries: Future Energy, Green Products and Waste Treatment
No full textThis eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contac
Constructing Highly Stable CoAl-LDH-Coupled g‑C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> 2D/2D Heterojunctions for Solar Energy-Driven Conversion of Flared Gas to Syngas through Dry-/Bireforming of Methane
No full textFabricating highly stable CoAl-layered double hydroxide
(LDH)-anchored
graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) 2D/2D heterojunction
composites for photocatalytic flared gas (methane) reduction with
CO2 through methane dry reforming (MDR) and methane bireforming
has been investigated. The self-assembly growth of CoAl-LDH flakes
with layered g-C3N4 sheets enables proficient
charge carrier separation to provide good photoactivity and stability.
The optimized 15 wt % CoAl-LDH/g-C3N4 exhibited
efficient syngas production, in which H2 and CO yield rates
were 4.8 and 3.8 folds higher than those of pure CoAl-LDH, respectively.
This activity enhancement can be attributed to strong interfacial
interaction, higher light absorption, acidic/basic characteristics,
and an improved charge-transfer process. With different feed ratios
(CH4/CO2), the highest syngas production was
achieved with a ratio of 1.0, confirming efficient adsorption of both
reactants due to the basic characteristics of composites to uptake
CO2/CH4. During photocatalytic CO2 reduction with CH4/H2O through the bireforming
of methane, lower photoactivity for CO/H2 production was
observed than using MDR due to a competing sorption process. The quantum
yield further confirms higher photon flux utilization for continuous
CO and H2 evolution, as evidenced by good recyclability
in multiple cycles. This study provides a new opportunity to construct
CoAl-LDH-coupled g-C3N4 heterojunctions to utilize
natural gas flaring toward syngas production through the dry reforming
process. Photocatalytic MDR technology proves to be an excellent option
for flared gas utilization for syngas (CO and H2) production
in a cleaner environment
A Survey of Energy Conservation Mechanisms for Dynamic Cluster Based Wireless Sensor Networks
No full textWSN (Wireless Sensor Network) is an emerging technology that has unlimited potential for numerous application areas including military, crisis management, environmental, transportation, medical, home/ city automations and smart spaces. But energy constrained nature of WSNs necessitates that their architecture and communicating protocols to be designed in an energy aware manner. Sensor data collection through clustering mechanisms has become a common strategy in WSN. This paper presents a survey report on the major perspectives with which energy conservation mechanisms has been proposed in dynamic cluster based WSNs so far. All the solutions discussed in this paper focus on the cluster based protocols only.We have covered a vast scale of existing energy efficient protocols and have categorized them in six categories. In the beginning of this paper the fundamentals of the energy constraint issues of WSNs have been discussed and an overview of the causes of energy consumptions at all layers of WSN has been given. Later in this paper several previously proposed energy efficient protocols of WSNs are presented
- …
