Consumption Ratio Research Articles

The Role of the Government's Self- Depth in Bearing Financial Pressures in Iraq for the Period (2006-2022)

This study aimed at analyzing the government's self-financing depth in withstanding financial pressures in Iraq during the period (2006-2022). The study assumed that increasing government's financial capacity was having a positive impact on facing financial pressures of public expenditure burdens and economic non-stability in Iraq. The study relied on the inductive and data analysis method to verify the hypothesis of the study and access to results. With reference to the use of the ratio of oil revenues to GDP as deputy for self- financing depth due to the Iraqi government's heavy reliance on oil revenues to finance the general budget. It also used the following indicators as deputy financial pressure: the ratio of public expenditure, consumption, investment, and public debt to gross domestic product, tax effort index, monetary stability coefficient index and exchange rate discipline index. The study found that the financial capacity of the Iraqi government relied heavily on volatile self-financing depending on the volatility of oil revenues in financing current expenditures, which reduced the financial capacity to stand financial pressure. It’s reflected in the government's high financial burden and the existence of economic non-stability (inflation pressure, external debt pressure, foreign currency exchange pressure) in Iraq. Paper type: Research paper.

Energy consumption during transient operation of coal-fired generating units with cold end system back pressure regulation

The dynamic characteristics of key parameters were investigated in this study, which reflected the operational flexibility and efficiency of thermal power units during load regulation. A refined model of the cold end of the unit was proposed. Simultaneously, an innovative exploration was conducted into the coordinated achievement of flexible load regulation and the promotion of energy-efficient operations. Two variables, the variable load rate and cooling water flow, were selected, and the continuous dynamic characteristics of unit energy consumption during load adjustment were determined. The ratio of total variable load coal consumption to load regulation and variable load time was defined as the average regulated coal consumption BZ, which was introduced to enhance the intuitive evaluation of flexibility and efficiency. It was shown that with the increase in variable load rate, there was a decrease observed in the total coal consumption during the variable load process. This trend was consistent with earlier publications. Concurrently, a reduction in cooling water flow had resulted in an increase in power generation coal consumption and a decrease in coal consumption for circulating cooling water pumps. The elevated rate of load variation was attributed to the increased flow of cooling water. A decrease of 14.9 % in back pressure was noted with the increase in the flow of the cooling water. As a result of this reduction in back pressure, the coal consumption rate for power generation was decreased by 1.334 g/kWh, reflecting a decrease of 0.43 %. Additionally, a reduction in total coal consumption of 0.16 t during variable load operation was witnessed, while a 1.97 % increase in the variable load rate was recorded. The optimal flexibility and coal-saving effect were achieved under the conditions of 30 MW/min and 60000 t/h, with ΔBZ = −50 g/(MW·s). Finally, the feasibility of the proposed scheme was verified through the case of a 350 MW unit.

A consumption-based term structure model of bonds and equity

In this study, I propose a consumption-based asset pricing model to capture the dynamic properties of term structures of bonds and equity. I extend the long-run risks model by introducing a mean-reversion of dividend growth and the external habit formation of a representative agent. The mean-reverting dividend growth generates a negative equity term premium, while the habit formation augments the equity premium and renders an upward-sloping bond yield curve, on average. In addition, fluctuations in the surplus consumption ratio and the conditional variance of consumption growth allow the model to reproduce pro-cyclical variations in bond and equity yield spreads and counter-cyclical variations in bond and equity term premiums, as observed in the U.S. data.

Market Reaction to Environmental Disasters

Despite the fact that environmental issues are coming to the fore today, the market reaction to environmental disasters is not strong enough. This article examines the impact of a number of major industrial disasters on the companies’ stock performance, depending on financial health of the companies involved in an accident. We assessed the impact of financial indicators such as: financial leverage, profitability, balance value per share, capital expenditures, market capitalization and revenue on the amplitude of cumulative average abnormal returns (CAAR). The sample consists of 32 companies fromthe oil, chemical, mining and energy industries of developed countries involved in 80 major accidents between 2000 and 2020. The majority of disasters occurred in North America (47.5%) and in Europe (26.3%). Using the event study method to assess shareholders’ reaction and regression analysis, we proved that the financial leverage, profitability and book value per share has a positive impact on the amplitude of CAAR, while the ratio of capital expenditures to revenue has a negative impact on cumulative returns. The results showed that market capitalization and revenue growth do not affect the dynamics of stock prices after industrial disasters. In general, our study shows that the impact of all financial indicators on CAARis small (<1%). That is, despite the mandatory publication of climate risk reports, investors did not actively sell shares of companies guilty of industrial disasters. The results of the study are useful in several areas. On the one hand, by forming a diversified investment portfolio, investors taking into account the type of companies that are more sensitive to disasters. On the other hand, knowing such a market reaction, the state should provide financial players with strict rules and penalties for companies responsible for accidents.

Comparison of the performance enhancement of vacuum ejector by means of structure optimization and bypass methods

The ejector can create a vacuum environment without electricity and produce no pollutants, making it widely used in various fields. However, during the working process, a large amount of high-pressure air needs to be continuously supplied to maintain the vacuum level. Given the current energy shortages, it is essential to enhance the entrainment capacity and reduce the energy requirements of the vacuum ejector. To achieve this goal, a two-stage vacuum ejector (TSVE) and structure optimization are adopted. While achieving the same vacuum level (80 kPa or 90 kPa), the air consumption (m˙p) and entrainment ratio (Er) of vacuum ejectors with various shapes are compared. Through structural optimization, five high-performance vacuum ejectors (Pp < 0.6 MPa, Er > 0.65) are selected. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is applied to observe the mixing processes in the vacuum ejector. In addition, the optimized vacuum ejector and TSVE are compared to the original one. An experimental system is designed for this purpose. The findings indicate that both methods can enhance the performance of the vacuum ejector. However, the benefits of TSVE are more pronounced at lower vacuum levels, while the advantages of the optimized vacuum ejector become more obvious as the vacuum level increases.

Potential Food Inclination of Crab-Eating Macaques in Laboratory Environments: Enhancing Positive Reinforcement Training and Health Optimization.

Positive reinforcement and training for health optimization are pivotal for successful studies with monkeys. Potential food inclination is important for studies on crab-eating macaques in laboratory environments, but evaluations remain scarce. We explored crab-eating macaques' potential food inclination to establish a reward system for future behavioral assessments. Twelve male and three female monkeys underwent a food inclination assessment in which they were offered four food categories-fruits, vegetables, proteins, and nuts. The monkeys exhibited a higher inclination for plant-based foods, particularly fruits and vegetables, over animal-based proteins like chicken and tuna (p < 0.0001), with a notable inclination for nuts (eaten/provided = 100%). Additionally, the consistency of potential food inclination after repeated offerings was investigated, revealing a time-dependent increase in inclination for protein items. Food consumption ratios correlated positively with caloric intake (r = 0.59, p = 0.02), implying that individuals with a regular high caloric intake and increased body weight are more likely to accept food during positive reinforcement training. Our findings suggest fruits, vegetables, protein-rich foods, and nuts can help with health optimization. However, animal-based protein-rich foods initially had a low preference, which may increase over time. Our study can provide guidelines for positive reinforcement training and health optimization.

Deuterium enrichment by proton exchange membrane water electrolysis with electrolyte circulation

Hydrogen isotopes will be new energy sources in nuclear fusion. In this study, a batch system for producing heavy water was developed in which pure water with deuterium (D) was circulated during proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. Deuterium was enriched by up to 94.7 at.% from 51.1 at.%. The D components of water and gas were analyzed during electrolysis. The relationship between the concentration of D (CD) and the electrolytic consumption ratio (R) was evaluated. This relationship was simulated using a mass balance model. From the gas analysis, the separation factor α was calculated. It was found that α depended on the ratio among H2O, HDO, and D2O to maintain the equilibrium state of the chemical exchange reaction.

Infrared drying characteristics and optimization of ginseng

Fresh ginseng has a high moisture content and is easy to be deteriorated, thus an effective drying method is needed. Infrared drying is known as low energy consumption, and high heat transfer, thus the far infrared (FIR) and near infrared (NIR) drying characteristics of ginseng were investigated and compared. Influences of infrared temperature, radiation distance, and slice thickness on the drying kinetics, specific energy consumption, color change and rehydration ratio were analyzed. Results indicated that the drying rate of ginseng increased with increasing infrared temperature and decreasing radiation distance and slice thickness. The drying time under FIR was shortened by 33.3%, 25% and 20% at 40 °C, 50 °C, 60 °C compared to that under NIR, indicating that the drying efficiency of FIR was superior to that of NIR and with the decrease of temperature, this improvement became more obvious. The specific energy consumption can be reduced by up to 40% under FIR and the infrared drying was much more energy-efficient than hot air drying, with an energy reduction by up to 51.1%. Optimization of FIR drying showed that the optimal conditions were at a drying temperature of 50 °C, a slice thickness of 2 mm and a radiation distance of the 4th layer.

Influences of parameters of film on acoustical absorption performance of copper film-copper fiber composite structure

Fiber porous materials excel at sound absorption, but their effectiveness suffers at thin thicknesses. This study proposed a novel copper film-copper fiber porous material (FFM) structure to overcome this limitation. We designed a composite material with improved sound absorption, by coating a thin copper film onto an existing copper fiber matrix. This innovative approach enables effective sound absorption when the sample thickness is small. Our analysis revealed that FFM structures are better than the individual copper film and fiber porous material regarding sound absorption, particularly near their resonance frequency. Notably, a 2 mm-thick FFM structure boasts an average sound absorption coefficient of 0.35, a remarkable fourfold increase compared to the individual copper fiber matrix (0.08). The further investigation explores the influence of copper film thickness and bond area percentage on acoustic performance. We successfully validate our simulation model against experimental data, enabling us to calculate energy consumption ratios for various design parameters. This provides research ideas for optimizing FFM structures for specific noise reduction applications.

Effectiveness of Higher Education Financing: DEA and SFA Modelling

The article aims to assess the effectiveness of financial expenditures in higher education for 31 provinces in China, namely overall, technical and scale efficiency, and to determine whether the returns to scale are increasing or decreasing for each province. The main method used is the three-stage DEA analysis / Data Envelopment Analysis, and software DEAP2.1 and Frontier 4.1 are used for modelling. Financial expenditures on higher education form an input parameter in the DEA model. The output parameters (determining the efficiency of higher education) are the number of students, the number of full-time teachers and the new value added to fixed assets in higher education institutions. The modelling was carried out for 2008-2013 and 2014-2018 (the COVID-19 pandemic is not considered to avoid uncommon trends and unpredictable disturbances in the model). A comparison of the analysis results for these periods allowed the identification of new trends and patterns. The study takes into account three main groups of parameters: 1) endogenous (inefficiency of internal management processes); 2) exogenous (gross regional product per capita of each province in China; the extent of university clustering, which is determined by political and market decisions and does not depend on educational institutions; and the degree of fiscal decentralisation, which is estimated in the article as the ratio of local and state budget expenditures per capita, taking into account the distribution of total budget expenditures for each district and the total population of the respective territory); 3) random disturbances. At the first stage of the study, a BCC model focused on inputs (to assess the technical efficiency of financial expenditures on higher education in different provinces) was built. It does not consider exogenous factors and random disturbances. In the second stage, SFA (stochastic frontier analysis) was applied to account for the impact of all three groups of factors (endogenous, exogenous and statistical noise) on the efficiency of financial expenditures in higher education for each province in China. In the third stage, the adjusted and standardised input and output parameters are incorporated into the BCC models, and the actual value of efficiency caused by exogenous parameters and the influence of random factors is determined. A comparison of the results of each modelling stage for each stage in the study and each province in China allowed the establishment of how the influence of the determinants of higher education financing efficiency changed in chronological and spatial contexts.

Taurine amino acid supplementation impacts performance, blood hematology, oxidative stress, and jejunum morphology in broiler chickens.

Excess levels of free radicals cause oxidative damage to cells. Taurine is a rare amino acid with antioxidant effects whose dietary deficiency increases oxidative damage to the cell membrane. To investigate the effects of dietary taurine supplementation on performance, blood hematology, oxidative stress, and jejunum morphology in broilers, 300 broilers (Ras 308, 1D of age) were randomly allocated into 4 groups with 5 replicates of 15 birds. The experimental treatments included basic diet (control treatment) and basic diet with 1, 3, and 6g/kg taurine amino acid. During 1 to 45 days, the inclusion of taurine supplementation in diets improved the body weight gain (BWG), feed consumption (FC), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of broilers (P < 0.05). In CBC tests, the experimental treatments were significantly different concerning the red blood cell (RBC) count, the average hemoglobin in the cell, the RBC width in the curve, and the hematocrit (P < 0.05). Despite the significance of oxidative stress among the treatments, the control and fourth treatments showed the highest and the lowest oxidative stress, respectively (P < 0.05). Also, in jejunum morphology, the fourth treatment showed the best performance in terms of villus length and width and the villus length to crypt depth (V/C) ratio (P < 0.05). Overall, 6g/kg taurine addition to the diet reduced oxidative stress and positive features in the jejunum morphology while improving the functional traits of broilers.

Analysis Of Performance Supporting Factors For Micro, Small, And Medium Enterprises In Ku-Tai Kartanegara Regency

Poverty is not only a crucial economic problem because it tends to increase and result in instability in various sectors of life, so handling it needs to be a shared responsibility. Regions that are rich in mineral resources also still have problems of poverty and unemployment, including in the Banua Enam region, South Kalimantan Province. This research analyzes the influence of mining sector growth, unemployment, and the capital expenditure ratio on poverty levels in the Banua Enam region, South Kalimantan Province. This type of research is explanatory and focuses on testing existing theories in the context of other research using panel data regression for 6 districts and 12 years. The results of this research suggest that the growth of the mining sector, unemployment, and the capital expenditure ratio, both partially and simultaneously, have a positive and significant effect on the poverty level. In other words, the higher the unemployment, the higher the poverty level. However, the higher growth of the mining sector and the capital expenditure ratio also increase poverty. Therefore, policies are needed that are pro-poor so that the growth of the mining sector and increased capital expenditure can overcome the problem of poverty.

An integrated energy recovery approach of biohythane-biocrude production from microalgae-sludge through co-digestion and co-liquefaction

Higher energy recovery from wet-waste is a challenging task while considering the waste-to-energy approach to tackle the huge wet-waste biomass generated around the globe. This study took the opportunity to explore the combined approach of biohythane (e.g., bioH2 and bioCH4) and biocrude generation using two-stage anaerobic digestion coupled with hydrothermal liquefaction (TSAD-HTL). The finding of this study suggests that the highest biohythane productivity of 268.7 mL/g-VS with energy recovery of 9.95 MJ/kg-VS was produced from sludge-microalgae co-digestion, which was 17% and 205% higher than mono-digestion of microalgae and sludge, respectively. In addition, the highest biocrude yield of 45.4% was obtained from sludge-microalgae-derived digestate. The lighter fraction (<C20) of biocrude was observed at 91.8 % (20 % naphtha, 58 % jet fuel, and 13 % diesel) with an HHV of 35.85 MJ/kg. The higher energy recovery of 81 % and lower energy consumption ratio of 0.25 suggests that the integrated TSAD-HTL is an innovative energy-positive approach for producing biohythane-biocrude from wet wastes as a sustainable concept of zero waste.

Determinants of Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from Local Governments in Sumatera Island

This study aims to investigate determinants of financial reporting quality (FRQ) local government in Sumatera Islands, Indonesia. The FRQ local government is proxied by audit opinion from the Indonesian Supreme Audit Board (ISAB) for each local government sample. The tested independent variables are capital expenditure, characteristics of local governments (size, financial independency, and local government status), and mayor’s characteristics (experience and age). Data were obtained from the summary of semester audit results of ISAB, official website of the ministry of finance and the local governments in Sumatera Island. Total samples are 143 local governments and the period of study is 5 years (2016 – 2020, or 715 observations). Using the multinomial logistic regression, this study found that a lower ratio of capital expenditure, smaller local governments, local government in city areas, and local governments led by older and experienced mayor are associated with higher financial reporting quality. This study also uncovered that mayor education level and mayor graduated from the Institute of Public Administration (or IPDN) have positive influence of financial reporting quality of the local governments.

Evaluating the Effects of Feeding a Concentrated Saccharomyces cerevisiae Fermentation Product on the Performance and Stress Susceptibility of Broiler Chickens

This study evaluated the effect of a concentrated yeast fermentation product on the performance and stress response of broiler chickens. Day-old Cobb 500 male broiler chicks were randomly allocated to one of two dietary treatments: Control (CON) or concentrated yeast fermentation product (CSCFP, 0.625 kg/MT). On d18, simultaneous feed withdrawal and heat stress challenges were performed for 12 h. Blood was analyzed for plasma corticosterone (CORT) and heterophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (HL) on d19 and d42. Performance parameters were collected throughout the trial: body weight (BW), feed consumption (FC), and feed conversion ratio (FCR). On d19, the CSCFP birds had lower (p ≤ 0.05) CORT (5320.3 ng/mL) and HL (0.14) than the CON birds (9049.6 ng/mL and 0.21). On d42, the CSCFP birds had lower (p ≤ 0.05) CORT (1623.8 ng/mL) and HL (0.74) than the CON birds (2920.2 ng/mL and 1.05). No differences were observed in mortality (p &gt; 0.05). The CON birds had a higher (p ≤ 0.05) FCR than CSCFP throughout all phases. The CON birds consumed more feed than the CSCFP birds throughout all phases (p ≤ 0.05). In conclusion, CYFP reduced stress and improved feed conversion when compared to CON, making it a viable feed additive to improve welfare and production.

Measurement of Energy Expenditure by Indirect Calorimetry with a Whole-Room Calorimeter.

Energy plays a vital role in biological processes. To assess energy metabolism status in a large population cohort, the standard operating procedure for measuring energy expenditure measurement using a whole-room calorimeter was purposed in this study. This protocol illustrates the procedure and specific details for validating methanol burning and evaluating the metabolic status of volunteers. In metabolic status evaluation, the (1) O2 consumption, (2) CO2 production, (3) energy expenditure, and (4) respiratory exchange ratio were first measured at resting and provided as basic phenotype items in Human Phenotype Atlas. Besides, it includes the procedure and results for measuring exercise-related activity thermogenesis and evaluating the impact of environmental temperature on energy metabolism. These results demonstrate the broader utility of the whole-room calorimeter. The implementation of this protocol is expected to enhance the data comparability in Human Phenotype Atla and provide a valuable reference for metabolism-related studies.

Hardware-Accelerated YOLOv5 Based on MPSoC

This paper details the development of a hardware acceleration system for YOLOv5, focusing on flame detection as its primary application. The implementation leverages the APU and DPU functionalities integrated into the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC XCZU7EV core. The proposed solution addresses the challenge of achieving real-time target detection on mobile terminals, ensuring both real-time operation and ultralow power consumption of YOLOv5. Notably, our design approach facilitates the deployment of all target detection algorithms under TensorFlow for mobile devices. To optimize model efficiency, we employ saturated linear mapping quantization with calibration. This technique maps model weights, double bases, and activations from 32-bit to 8-bit, incurring only a 1.64% accuracy loss. The data flow design is realized through efficient data exchange between DDR, APU, and DPU, utilizing the AXI4 bus architecture. Image pre-processing and post-processing tasks are executed on the APU, while neural network inference occurs on the DPU. Our accelerated system demonstrates compelling experimental results: maintaining a detection speed of 56FPS, achieving an accuracy of 36.56% on the COCO2014 dataset, and exhibiting a total system power consumption of only 4.147W. Furthermore, the energy consumption ratio is measured at 15.41GOPS/W, surpassing the RTX A6000 graphics card by a factor of 55.

An improved method to calculate the rock brittleness index PEECR based on linear energy storage law

The peak elastic strain energy consumption ratio (PEECR) is a rock brittleness index proposed by Gong and Wang. In the present study, based on the linear energy storage law of rock under triaxial compression, a new method was proposed to calculate the PEECR. The PEECR uses a simplified method to calculate the peak elastic strain energy. To solve this problem accurately, triaxial cyclic loading-unloading compression tests were carried out on shale. Strain energy parameters were calculated from the test curves. The results show that there is a linear relationship between the elastic strain energy and input strain energy, indicating that the linear energy storage law in rock is applicable to triaxial compression state. The universality of the linear energy storage law of rock under triaxial compression is also verified by the data in the published literature. Then, the peak elastic strain energy can be accurately determined using the linear energy storage law, and the PEECR is improved based on this. Finally, the PEECR and the improved PEECR were compared using the triaxial cyclic loading-unloading compression tests on three rocks (shale, red sandstone and granite), and the improved PEECR was compared with 11 existing energy-based brittleness indexes. The results show that the improved PEECR can further reflect the rock brittleness more accurately.

Calculation of GaInSb PNP lateral HBT for complementary bipolar logic technology

In this study, the power consumption and speed of a GaInSb PNP lateral heterojunction bipolar transistor were estimated for applications in complementary bipolar logic circuits. At the supply voltage of 250 mV, the current gain is over 1000, on/off power consumption ratio is approximately 180, and delay time is 2.6 ps. However, the characteristics degrade rapidly at voltages greater than 300 mV, owing to deep saturation and high-level injection.

Intestinal microflora, body fat profiles and performance of male Tegal duck fed diet supplemented with red tomato extract

The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of red tomato extract (RTE) on intestinal microflora, fat digestibility, body fat (meat fat mass, abdominal fat), and performances of male tegal duck. One hundred birds of male tegal ducks of 3 weeks old (initial body weight was 507.74±31.86 g) were randomly divided into 4 treatments with 5 replications (5 birds each) in a completely randomized design. Dietary treatments were basal diet without RTE as a control (T0), basal diet added with 0.10% RTE (T1), basal diet added with 0.15% RTE (T2) and basal diet added with 0.20% RTE (T3). Parameters measured were lactic acid bacteria (LAB), coliform, intestinal pH, fat digestibility, meat fat mass, abdominal fat, blood concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), body weight gain (BWG), carcass weight, feed consumption, and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Data were subjected to analysis of variance and continued to Duncan multiple range test when the treatment indicated significant (p&lt;0.05) effect. Supplementation of RTE at higher level significanly (p&lt;0.05) increased lactic acid bacteria (LAB), concentration of superoxide dismutase (SOD), carcass weight and body weight gain (BWG), while fat digestibility, meat fat mass, abdominal fat, malondialdehyde (MDA), intestinal pH, coliform counts and feed conversion ratio decreased (p&lt;0.05), as compared to control. Feed consumption tended to decrease but not significant (p&gt;0.05). In conclusion, feeding red tomato extract at a level of 0.20% (T3) can be categorized as effective in improving intestinal bacterial balance, body fat, increasing superoxide dismutase (SOD), an antioxidant enzyme, and performances of male tegal duck.