Asymmetric Exchange Research Articles

Rheology of bidisperse non-Brownian suspensions.

We study the rheology of bidisperse non-Brownian suspensions using particle-based simulation, mapping the viscosity as a function of the size ratio of the species, their relative abundance, and the overall solid content. The variation of the viscosity with applied stress exhibits shear-thickening phenomenology irrespective of composition, though the stress-dependent limiting solids fraction governing the viscosity and its divergence point are nonmonotonic in the mixing ratio. Contact force data demonstrate an asymmetric exchange in the dominant stress contribution from large-large to small-small particle contacts as the mixing ratio of the species evolves. Combining a prior model for shear thickening with one for composition-dependent jamming, we obtain a full description of the rheology of bidisperse non-Brownian suspensions capable of predicting effects such as the viscosity reduction observed upon adding small particles to a suspension of large particles.

Application on power system economic dispatch of marine predator algorithm improved by asymmetric information exchange

The solution to the economic dispatch (ED) problem for power systems allows the power sector to reduce operating costs. However, the ED problem is a complex nonlinear and nonconvex optimization problem whose solution requires powerful algorithms. We propose a new version of the Marine Predator Algorithm (MPA), called IMPA, for solving complex ED problems. The algorithm introduces an asymmetric information exchange (AIE) mechanism, which not only accelerates to escape of local optima but also enriches the diversity of search. In this work, 12 benchmark functions were used to test the performance of the proposed algorithm IMPA. Then, the IMPA was used to solve the ED engineering problem of power system containing of 6, 13, 40, and complex 140 units. The minimum and average costs searched by IMPA are 1657962.7265$/h and 1657962.7265$/h, and they are much lower than the results of the MPA and NMPA, which means that our proposed improved IMPA improves the performance of MPA for solving the economic dispatch problem of large-scale power systems. The results show that the solutions obtained by IMPA are more competitive than those of MPA and NMPA, which provides an additional solution for cost reduction of the power system.

The asymmetric effects of exchange rate volatility on UK–Pakistan trade flows: New evidence from nonlinear ARDL approach

Using the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) method, the current study explores the effects of exchange rate variations on commodities trade between Pakistan and the United Kingdom. The current study contends that the limiting assumption of symmetry between the exchange rate and the trade flows may have hampered the empirical results, despite the fact that earlier studies primarily used the symmetric cointegration approach. From 1980 to 2020, the study examines the symmetric and asymmetries effects of exchange rate variations on 35 sectors in Pakistan that import from the UK and 35 industries that export to the UK. The findings suggest that there is evidence of a considerable influence of asymmetric exchange rate variations on trade flows in both the short and long term in over half of the importing and exporting industries that participate in trade with the UK. By highlighting the significance of taking into account asymmetry in the analysis and exposing the sector-specific effects of exchange rate changes on trade flows, the study adds to the body of current work.

Autonomous partners: asymmetry and masculinity in Amazonian river trade

AbstractTrade on the Iriri River, in the eastern Brazilian Amazonia, is structured around a credit‐barter system between clients and bosses known as aviamento in Portuguese. Nowadays, bosses are river traders born in the riversides who offer goods on credit to riverside dwellers, who later pay these debts with fish and products they collect from the forest. While the system, found in the Amazon basin since colonial times, is perhaps most known for fostering debt‐peonage during the Rubber Boom (1870‐1912), it can also create relations of mutual dependency that promote the autonomy of trade partners within an asymmetrical exchange. When that is the case, this trade is central to how clients and bosses define themselves as hard‐working, reliable, and transparent, personifying qualities they deem essential to masculine honour. In such partnerships (and more dramatically when they break down), the asymmetry of the relation can be challenged through a notion of male equivalence in which men must defend their honour and adhere to a code of conduct that ultimately excludes women and children from trade.

Strained ties in plurinational states: Analysing the social network divide between Canada's two solitudes

AbstractPatterns of social networks in plurinational societies remain understudied in the inter‐group contact literature. In Canada, a significant number of authors have studied political divides between Quebecers and other Canadians, but little is still known about the scope and determinants of the social disconnect between both communities. This paper provides the first quantitative measure of the social networking gap between Canada's ‘two solitudes’ using behavioural data. Our analysis mobilises the Facebook Connectedness Index (2020), which provides district‐level connectivity estimates between all active Facebook users in Canada. Results obtained via linear regression models show that population size, distance and self‐isolation patterns cannot account for the significant connectivity gap between Quebec and the rest of Canada. However, bilingualism in Quebec is positively correlated with higher inter‐regional networks, suggesting asymmetrical linguistic exchanges. These results empirically confirm decades of anecdotal accounts about the existence of a social disconnect between Canada's French‐ and English‐speaking communities.

Asymmetric Exchange Rate Effects on Trade Flows in India

This paper examines the role of exchange rate changes on India’s trade. The drivers of exports and imports (income, exchange rate including sectoral differences, and exchange rate variability) are estimated for the short and long run including a structural break. Using annual data from 1994 to 2022, the results of dynamic fixed effects estimation show that both exports and imports are income-elastic in the short and long run, but income elasticity is far stronger for exports. Moreover, exports are responsive to the real effective exchange rate in the short run but not in the long run, and the reverse is true for imports. Furthermore, exchange rates have asymmetric effects for high-volume and primary sectors for exports and imports. The combined impacts show the ineffectiveness of using currency depreciation to address trade imbalances.

Conversion of flat to cylindrical hydrogel structures by asymmetric crosslinking and ionic exchange

The similarity of hydrogels with human soft tissues serves a two-fold purpose: they are convenient, humane tissue substitutes for biomedical testing, while they are also a reliable platform for the development of biocompatible implantable devices and organoids. However, these assets come with challenges with reproducible processing of stable hollow structures that are common transducers of liquids in living organisms, from two-dimensional polymeric precursors. Here, we describe a protocol for film-to-tube transformation that is devoid of templates, catalysts, 3D printing, heating, and light, and can be used to prepare hollow hydrogel structures. The resulting hydrogel tubes have tensile strength of up to 45 MPa, turning these materials into the most robust hydrogel materials reported to date. The flexibility and elasticity favor the resulting hydrogel tubes for catheterization of artificial intestinal demonstrating the potential for medical applications. The approach can be applied to prepare structure/function-mimetic organoids such as branched blood vessels and nephrons with higher resolution than additive manufacturing. Then hollow structures are degradable in alkaline solution, and the solution can be recycled to recover the tubular structures. The convenience of the approach described overcomes some of the most challenging aspects of preparation of hollow hydrogel elements.

Is the exchange rate exposure puzzle really a puzzle? International evidence

PurposeGiven the difficulties in finding significant exchange rate exposure in the extant literature, this paper attempts to resolve the so-called “exposure puzzle” by investigating whether currency movements have any significant impact on international industry returns.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilizes the multivariate Generalized AutoRegressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (MGARCH) methodology to estimate both symmetric and asymmetric exchange rate exposures for each industry common across 12 countries simultaneously.FindingsThe empirical results show that exchange rate exposure is not only statistically significant but also economically important based on the estimation of an asymmetric three-factor exposure model using MGARCH methodology. This is an extremely important finding as it suggests that the “exposure puzzle” may not be a puzzle at all once a better methodology is utilized in the estimation.Research limitations/implicationsBecause this study tries to resolve the exchange rate exposure puzzle by focusing on whether exchange rate movements affect ex-post returns as opposed to ex ante expected returns and given the significant exposures with respect to different risk factors found in the study, it is interesting to see if any of these risk factors commands a risk premium. In other words, a natural extension of this study is to test whether any of these risk factors is priced in international industry returns.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study have interesting implications for international investors who would like to diversify their portfolios across different industries and are concerned about whether the unexpected movements in the bilateral exchange rates will affect their portfolio returns in addition to its interest rate and world market risk exposures.Originality/valueThe study utilizes the MGARCH methodology, which has not been fully exploited in the exchange rate exposure literature.

High-Performance Asymmetric Porous Anion Exchange Membrane with Controllable Morphology via Solvent Evaporation and Water Etching

High-Performance Asymmetric Porous Anion Exchange Membrane with Controllable Morphology via Solvent Evaporation and Water Etching

Beyond prometheanism: Modern technologies as strategies for redistributing time and space

Technologies developed since the late eighteenth century differ from earlier forms of technology by being as dependent on world market prices of labour, land and other biophysical resources as on human inventiveness. Yet, whether their outlook is mainstream or heterodox, modern people tend to view technology simply as ingenuity applied to nature, while oblivious of the extent to which it is contingent on the asymmetric exchange of resources in global society. Although inextricably entwined in the real world, the phenomena studied by economics and engineering are kept conceptually separate. This is achieved by disregarding the materiality of world trade. Modern technologies are not just instruments for solving problems but social strategies for redistributing time and space in world society, displacing work and environmental loads to sectors of the world system where wages are lower and environmental legislation less rigorous. Technology should not remain extraneous to social theory. A sociometabolic reconceptualisation of technology is particularly essential for critics of global capitalism.

Visualizing the fluorescence of AgPt NCs by an asymmetrical pseudo-ligand exchange method

We developed an asymmetrical pseudo-ligand exchange strategy and realized structural and photoluminescence regulation from the reported Ag26Pt to Ag16Pt.

Optimized Group-Centric Data Routing in Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks for Enhanced Energy Efficiency

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are increasingly being utilized in environments where human presence is limited or dangerous. The main goal is to enhance the data processing capabilities of these components to extend the overall lifespan of the design. Researchers have explored conventional energy-saving methods to address the energy constraints of sensor nodes. However, it became clear that traditional routing methods, specifically those based on packet grouping, were inadequate. The proposed system, known as Optimized Group-Centric Data Routing (OGC-DR), introduces an efficient method of data routing by utilizing the concept of grouping nodal points. This approach enhances data routing management by differentiating between routing within a nodal group and routing between adjacent nodal groups. Group Heading Nodes (GHN) are assigned to each group of sensory nodes according to fitness criteria. The implementation of a tree-based routing structure improves data routing by creating a meeting-zone and strategically selecting intermediary nodes between the source and destination node. To improve data privacy, a sender and receiver engage in an asymmetric secret-key exchange at nodal points. Data is then directed to its ultimate destination via predetermined intermediary nodes and Group Heading Nodes. Simulations of the proposed method indicate several advantages, such as lower end-to-end delays, reduced energy consumption, higher active node count, and enhanced packet delivery rates. Furthermore, it improves data privacy for all communication within the sensory architecture.

An Empirical Study on Asymmetric Exchange Rate Pass-Through to Sectorial Inflation of Pakistan

This study empirically examined the exchange rate pass through (ERPT) in sectoral inflation of Pakistan for the period 2007M6 to M62018 by applying the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) model. The study has used consistent monthly data with 2007-08 base year. The empirical results showed that due to 1 percentage point increase in depreciation of Pak rupee against US dollar, monthly transport inflation increased by 0.90 percentage points, monthly restaurant inflation increased by 0.78 percentage points, monthly food inflation increased by 0.27 percentage points and monthly housing inflation increased by 0.32 percentage points in the long run. It means that exchange rate has positive and significant effect on monthly transport inflation, monthly restaurant inflation, monthly food inflation and monthly housing inflation. All required diagnostic tests have been performed to verify that there is no heteroscedasticity, no autocorrelation, stability of model, and normality of estimated residuals. The study concluded that ERPT may be estimated for inflation in sub-indices of CPI as a regular practice by monetary authorities to rationalize asymmetric effects of depreciation on different sectors of the economy

Volume compensation of large-deformation 3D-printed soft elastomeric elastocaloric regenerators

Elastomeric elastocaloric regenerators have great potential for use in low-stress elastocaloric cooling devices. However, these regenerators display an asymmetric fluid exchange when operating in an active elastocaloric cooling cycle, due to the large required strains and associated volume change. During strain, the fluid volume increases, which passively forces fluid flow into the regenerator; when the strain is released, the fluid volume decreases, which results in a fluid flow out of the regenerator. During a traditional elastocaloric cooling cycle, there are also active fluid flow periods provided by fluid displacers or pumps. Here, we study the passive fluid flow in high-strain regenerators using a numerical model and experiments in two types of regenerators. Hyperelastic models are used to fit the experimentally measured mechanical behavior of thermoplastic polyurethane elastocaloric elastomers, and the model is subsequently used to conduct finite-element simulations predicting regenerator volume changes for an applied strain of 200%–600%. We validated the results using a specifically designed setup for measuring volume changes using pressure differences on a parallel-plate regenerator. For a strain range of 200%–600%, the predicted volume change ratio is 69.5%, closely matching the experimental value of 66.7%. We observed that the middle region of the regenerator experiences a higher volume change, which can be accurately accounted by the numerical model.

Asymmetric Exchange Rate Pass-through in India: A Non-linear ARDL Approach

This study makes an attempt to examine the exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to domestic prices in India from 1993M4 to 2021M3. In the empirical literature, the relationship between the exchange rate and the price was found to be linear. However, in emerging economies recently the asymmetric relationship between these variables is noticed: the effect of appreciation on price is found to be negligible while the effect of depreciation is found to be significant. To study this behaviour, we have used non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model by employing five variables (viz., exchange rate, consumer price, output gap, money supply and oil prices). The structural break techniques are used to examine the differential effects of the pass-through. It found that exchange rate shocks do not lead to significant changes in consumer prices in the long run. In terms of policy, this means that the ERPT has insignificant consequences for monetary policy, and depreciation might pose a little threat to price stability. It is also established that oil price shocks are not one of the major determinants of inflation in the country and they do not pose serious challenges to price stability. Economic growth and monetary expansion also do not seem to pose any risks to price stability in the long run. JEL Classification: E31, E37, E52, F31

Asymmetric effects of exchange rate volatility on the shadow economy: new evidence from OECD countries

ABSTRACT Assessing the shadow economy and its major determinants has been an important part of economic literature over the past few decades. In this article, we analyse the impact of exchange rate volatility on the presence of the shadow economy for the current 38 OECD countries over the period of 1991–2021 in both a linear and nonlinear manner. We provide the opportunity to test whether an exchange rate adjustment may follow a nonlinear path and analyse the asymmetric impact of exchange rate volatility on the shadow economy. We estimate a linear ARDL model for each country and find support that exchange rate variability significantly affects the shadow economy both in the short run and long run in most countries both in linear and nonlinear models. However, by estimating a nonlinear ARDL model, we find an asymmetric exchange rate volatility effect in all 38 countries concluding that exchange rate volatility and risks associated with it significantly affects the shadow economy. Thus, it is crucial that this group of nations adequately implement financial policies to minimize this risk.

ACKE: Asymmetric Computing Key Exchange Protocol for IoT Environments

Most of the cryptographic protocols currently in use are not appropriate for Internet of Things (IoT) environments because of their huge computing overhead, especially for terminal embedded devices with resource-constrained. Moreover, the computing resources in IoT environments are frequently asymmetric, that is to say, the computing power of the terminal devices is always weak and the server-side is relatively stronger. In order to guarantee the security in the scenario, we present the asymmetric computing cryptosystem. Take the key exchange protocol as an example, we show how to construct ACKE, an asymmetric computing key exchange protocol, by employing the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol and the Subset Product problem (NP-complete) in this paper. The underlying idea this construction is to significantly decrease the computational complexity of one party, and allow for a suitable rise in the computational complexity of another party. Our proposed protocol is implemented on an IoT simulation platform composed of a notebook PC of Intel i5-5200U 2.2GHZ/8G and a smart watch of MTK6062 1.2GHZ/512M. The experimental results show that this work will assist in making the Diffie-Hellman type protocol suitable for practical applications in IoT environments.

Unpacking the asymmetric impact of exchange rate volatility on trade flows: A study of selected developed and developing Asian economies.

Maintaining a stable exchange rate is a challenging task for the world, especially for developing economies. This study examines the impact of asymmetric exchange rates on trade flows in selected Asian countries and finds that the effects of increased exchange rate volatility on exports and imports differ among Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan, and Korea. The quarterly data from the period 1980 to 2018 is collected from the International Financial Statistics (IFS) database maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). We employ both linear and non-linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) models for estimation. The non-linear models yielded more significant findings, while the linear models did not indicate any significant effects of exchange rate volatility on trade flows. The results of the study suggest that in the case of Pakistan, both the linear and non-linear models indicate that increased exchange rate volatility adversely affects exports and imports, while decreased volatility enhances both. This implies that stabilizing the exchange rate would be beneficial for Pakistan's trade. In contrast, the linear model applied to Malaysia shows no long-run effects of exchange rate volatility on exports. However, the result suggests that decreased volatility stimulates Malaysia's exports. Therefore, in the case of Malaysia, stabilizing the exchange rate could contribute to boosting exports. We also found that increased exchange rate volatility boosts exports of Japan. On the other hand, decreased volatility hurts exports of Japan. As for the long-run effects of exchange rate volatility on imports, we found that increased volatility boosts imports of Korea. The study provides various policy implications regarding the impact of exchange rate volatility on trade flows in developing economies. The study highlights the importance of country-specific considerations in understanding the impact of exchange rate volatility on trade flows, and has important policy implications for promoting trade and economic growth in these nations. It emphasizes the need to model exchange rate volatility separately for developed and developing countries and to continue research and analysis to identify ways to mitigate its negative effects on the economy.

Asymmetric exchange rate pass-through to consumer prices in Egypt

Asymmetric exchange rate pass-through to consumer prices in Egypt

Global flows of insect transport and establishment: The role of biogeography, trade and regulations

AbstractAimNon‐native species are part of almost every biological community worldwide, yet numbers of species establishments have an uneven global distribution. Asymmetrical exchanges of species between regions are likely influenced by a range of mechanisms, including propagule pressure, native species pools, environmental conditions and biosecurity. While the importance of different mechanisms is likely to vary among invasion stages, those occurring prior to establishment (transport and introduction) are difficult to account for. We used records of unintentional insect introductions to test (1) whether insects from some biogeographic regions are more likely to be successful invaders, (2) whether the intensity of trade flows between regions determines how many species are intercepted and how many successfully establish, and (3) whether the variables driving successful transport and successful establishment differ.LocationCanada, mainland USA, Hawaii, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, South Korea, South Africa.MethodsTo disentangle processes occurring during the transport and establishment stages, we analysed border interceptions of 8199 insect species as a proxy for transported species flows, and lists of 2076 established non‐native insect species in eight areas. We investigated the influence of biogeographic variables, socio‐economic variables and biosecurity regulations on the size of species flows between regions.ResultsDuring transport, the largest species flows generally originated from the Nearctic, Panamanian and Neotropical regions. Insects native to 8 of 12 biogeographic regions were able to establish, with the largest flows of established species on average coming from the Western Palearctic, Neotropical and Australasian/Oceanian regions. Both the biogeographic region of origin and trade intensity significantly influenced the size of species flows between regions during transport and establishment. The transported species richness increased with Gross National Income in the source country, and decreased with geographic distance. More species were able to establish when introduced within their native biogeographic region.Main ConclusionsOur results suggest that accounting for processes occurring prior to establishment is crucial for understanding invasion asymmetry in insects, and for quantifying regional biosecurity risks.