Representative Commodity Research Articles

THEORIZING AND ANALYZING THE CONTINGENT CASINO

Gambling games are composed of risk and contingency - the gambler stakes their bet on the spin or a reel or a roulette wheel completely dependent on forces outside of their control, uncertain of the outcome. This potent combination is not only being used to fuel the nearly $500 billion USD global gambling industry, but also to organise the current app economy. Digital platforms, their complementors, and their users are brought together by risk and contingency into a dynamic political economy, with the platform accruing the most advantage (Poell et al., 2021). Unpacking these unequal and sometimes precarious relations requires studying a “representative commodity” (Kline et al., 2003). Social casino apps, a niche, but still significant digital game commodity, embody how risk and contingency manifests in the app economy (Nieborg & Poell, 2018; Zittrain, 2008). In particular, when other industries interface with digital platforms, they become subject to their institutional imperatives (Gorwa, 2019). Social casino apps are representative of how platforms have been able to influence and shape even niche genres of digital leisure, but also the constraints and resistance to these techniques. In this paper, as a political economist of communication, I conduct a structural and critical analysis of the social casino industry, using institutional analysis as my methodology.

Evaluation of the effect of household-like handling on the concentration of ethion pesticide in parsley using GC-MS/MS for environmental monitoring

The main purpose of this study was to estimate the influence of different household treatments in the reduction/removal of ethion pesticide from the leaves of parsley in daily basis before human consumption. The suggested analytical method used for detection and quantitation of ethion pesticide in parsley matrix was based on AOAC Official Method 2007.01 using GC-MS/MS instrument. The limit of quantitation (LOQ) for ethion was presented as the minimum fortification level that fulfills convenient recoveries within 70–120% with precision (RSD ≤ 20%). Pesticide residues were extracted from samples of parsley leaves as a representative commodity for high water content group within leafy vegetables category. Parsley samples were gathered from Al-Rass city markets, Al-Qassim region, Saudi Arabia, and analyzed using the suggested method. Ethion pesticide was detected in parsley leaves with levels exceeding the European maximum residual limit (MRL). Some household-type processing and handling procedures were investigated in order to check their effectiveness in reducing the levels of ethion pesticide contaminant in parsley leaves before consumption. Our findings show that normal washing with tap water for 30-45 s is the best practice to reduce 29.6% the concentration of ethion pesticide in parsley samples.

Converting Non‐strained γ‐Valerolactone and Derivatives into Sustainable Polythioesters via Isomerization‐driven Cationic Ring‐Opening Polymerization of Thionolactone Intermediate

AbstractThis contribution reports the efficient conversion of γ‐valerolactone and its derivatives, abundant but unexplored renewable feedstocks, into sustainable and degradable polythioesters via the establishment of the first isomerization‐driven ring‐opening polymerizations (IROPs) of corresponding thionolactone intermediates. The key to this success relies on the development of a new simple and robust [Et3O]+[B(C6F5)4]− cationic initiator which possesses high activity, exclusive selectivity, living nature, and broad scope of thionolactones. A complete inversion of configuration during IROP of enantiopure γ‐thionovalerolactone is also disclosed, affording isotactic semicrystalline polythioesters (Tm=87.0 °C) with mechanical property compared well to the representative commodity polyolefins. The formation of a highly crystalline supramolecular stereocomplex with enhanced thermal property (Tm=117.6 °C) has also been revealed.

Converting Non-strained γ-Valerolactone and Derivatives into Sustainable Polythioesters via Isomerization-driven Cationic Ring-Opening Polymerization of Thionolactone Intermediate.

This contribution reports the efficient conversion of γ-valerolactone and its derivatives, abundant but unexplored renewable feedstocks, into sustainable and degradable polythioesters via the establishment of the first isomerization-driven ring-opening polymerizations (IROPs) of corresponding thionolactone intermediates. The key to this success relies on the development of a new simple and robust [Et3 O]+ [B(C6 F5 )4 ]- cationic initiator which possesses high activity, exclusive selectivity, living nature, and broad scope of thionolactones. A complete inversion of configuration during IROP of enantiopure γ-thionovalerolactone is also disclosed, affording isotactic semicrystalline polythioesters (Tm =87.0 °C) with mechanical property compared well to the representative commodity polyolefins. The formation of a highly crystalline supramolecular stereocomplex with enhanced thermal property (Tm =117.6 °C) has also been revealed.

Evaluation of a zone-based model for commodity classification using a representative fuel

This study presents the development of a zone-based model for commodity classification. The model divides the rack storage into multiple zones with each representing one tier of commodity. The fire spread within each zone is modeled using energy conservation for burning surface area. The water transport between zones is modeled using mass conservation. Effective properties are used to simplify the commodity behavior for fire spread and suppression. Model parameters are estimated or optimized based on experimental data. The model performance is evaluated against a representative commodity with well-established flammability properties. The chemical heat release rate matches generally well with experimental data under different storage heights and water application conditions. The model is able to predict the values of Critical Delivered Flux (CDF) for higher-tier storage based on two lower-tier experiments. The predicted CDF values reasonably agree with the experimental results. This work demonstrates a means to generalize results from tests under controlled water application conditions, which is critical to improve the cost-effectiveness of commodity classification.

Cross market predictions for commodity prices

This paper shows that commodity prices can be predicted from cross-market information by establishing long-run cross-market commodity price equilibrium models, which are characterized by a linear relation between prices across different markets. Using data from five representative commodity markets (oil, copper, gold, corn, and cattle) during the period 2005–2018, we demonstrate that oil and industrial metal markets have formed a long-run price equilibrium with other markets across different commodity families. However, agriculture and gold markets do not tend to have long-run price equilibrium relations with other commodity markets. Furthermore, we show that the absence of a price equilibrium is due to the cross-market liquidity interference effect. After we control for the liquidity effect, long-run cross-market commodity price equilibrium relations are reestablished for agriculture and gold markets. These results can aid in demonstrating that liquidity can capture most of the missing information that is not reflected in price dynamics in less liquid markets, such as agriculture and gold markets. Therefore, less liquid commodity price predictions require both prices and liquidity levels from cross-markets, while liquid commodity prices (oil and metal) can be predicted based solely on cross-market prices.

Polymer Labelling with a Conjugated Polymer-Based Luminescence Probe for Recycling in the Circular Economy.

In this paper, we present the use of a disubstituted polyacetylene with high thermal stability and quantum yield as a fluorescence label for the identification, tracing, recycling, and eventually anti-counterfeiting applications of thermoplastics. A new method was developed for the dispersion of poly[1-phenyl-2-[p-(trimethylsilyl)phenyl]acetylene] (PTMSDPA) into polymer blends. For such purposes, four representative commodity plastics were selected, i.e., polypropylene, low-density polyethylene, poly(methyl methacrylate), and polylactide. Polymer recycling was mimicked by two reprocessing cycles of the material, which imparted intensive luminescence to the labelled polymer blends when excited by proper illumination. The concentration of the labelling polymer in the matrices was approximately a few tens ppm by weight. Luminescence was visible to the naked eye and survived the simulated recycling successfully. In addition, luminescence emission maxima were correlated with polymer polarity and glass transition temperature, showing a marked blueshift in luminescence emission maxima with the increase in processing temperature and time. This blueshift results from the dispersion of the labelling polymer into the labelled polymer matrix. During processing, the polyacetylene chains disentangled, thereby suppressing their intermolecular interactions. Moreover, shear forces imposed during viscous polymer melt mixing enforced conformational changes, which shortened the average conjugation length of PTMSDPA chain segments. Combined, these two mechanisms shift the luminescence of the probe from a solid- to a more solution-like state. Thus, PTMSDPA can be used as a luminescent probe for dispersion quality, polymer blend homogeneity, and processing history, in addition to the identification, tracing, and recycling of thermoplastics.

Reputation Analysis of E-commerce Products Based on Online Reviews—Take Amazon as an Example

Based on the product review information of amazon from 2006 to 2016, this paper measures the correlation between star rating and text review. First, a supervised SVM model was established to classify text emotions. Second, the word2vec model was built to analyze the unsupervised emotion of the comment text. Third, the relationship between the special text and the score is obtained by using the grey metric model. In addition, the article has also carried on the principal component analysis to the commodity reputation, and has determined the representative good commodity and the inferior commodity. Finally, this paper puts forward some Suggestions for merchants, e-commerce platforms and governments.

On the burning behavior of thermoplastics at large scale: Uncartoned unexpanded plastic commodity

Large-scale tests were conducted to understand the burning process of thermoplastic high-density polyethylene pallets, a representative commodity in warehouse fire scenarios. Large-scale experiments of two stacks of eight plastic pallets showed that initially small fires can easily travel through the open structures, leading to rapid fire growth following an initially slow pre-heating phase. The plastic deforms and melts during the tests and this is most prominent for thin elements of the plastic pallets. In a second set of experiments involving one stack of plastic pallets, the liquid pool was accumulated in a collection pan and detailed measurements of temperature and heat flux were performed with an array of probes. The results show that 52–74% of the total pallet mass loss is accumulated in the burning liquid pool and that this fraction reduces with an increasing fire size. Radiative heat transfer is the dominant heat transfer mode for the plastic pallet fire, resulting in significant preheating ahead of the fire front. Spectral measurements were used to calculate an absorption coefficient of approximately 0.7 m-1 (only considering soot) for a 1.5 MW fire. These results will feed-forward into the development and validation of a numerical model for the thermoplastic pallet commodity.

Representative commodity for six leafy vegetables based on the determination of six pesticide residues by gas chromatography

A residue analytical method was developed for the determination of trichlorfon, chlorpyrifos, dimethoate, β cypermethrin, deltamethrin, and chlorothalonilin in six leafy vegetables by gas chromatography–electron capture detector (GC–ECD) and gas chromatography–flame photometric detector (GC–FPD). The method had a good linearity (R2 ≥ 0.9924) and precision (RSD ≤ 14.0%). The limits of quantification (LOQ) of six pesticides were all 0.01 mg/kg. Average recoveries of six pesticides ranged from 81% to 119%. The developed method was successfully applied to study the initial deposits, degrade characteristics, and terminal residues for six pesticides applied to six leafy vegetables under the same dose of formulation. The half-life of six pesticides was in the range of 0.8–8.8 days. The highest initial deposits, maximal residues, and terminal residues were found on leaf mustard and sweet potato leaves as the same pesticides were applied in different crops. Therefore, leaf mustard can be selected as representative commodity in the same subgroup to realize the residual extrapolation. This conclusion should be considered as a complement on crop classification of China.

Evaluation of Remote-I/O Support for a DSM-Based Computation Offloading Scheme

Computation offloading enables mobile devices to execute rich applications by using the abundant computing resources of powerful server systems. The distributed shared memory based (DSM-based) computation offloading approach is expected to be especially popular in the near future because it can dynamically migrate running threads to computing nodes and does not require any modifications of existing applications to do so. The current DSM-based computation offloading scheme, however, has focused on efficiently offloading computationally intensive applications and has not considered the significant performance degradation caused by processing the I/O requests issued by offloaded threads. Because most mobile applications are interactive and thus yield frequent I/O requests, efficient handling of I/O operations is critically important. In this paper, we quantitatively analyze the performance degradation caused by I/O processing in DSM-based computation offloading schemes using representative commodity applications. To remedy the performance degradation, we apply a remote I/O scheme based on remote device support to computation offloading. The proposed approach improves the execution time by up to 43.6% and saves up to 17.7% of energy consumption in comparison with the existing offloading schemes. Selective compression of the remote I/O scheme reduces the network traffic by up to 53.5%.

Selection of Short-term Investment Strategy-Judgment Based on Average Adhesion State

With the development and evolution of the futures market, the prosperity of a country's futures market is more and more important to the country's economic development. In China, the futures market development is not perfect, futures product structure still need to improve. Futures market, the existence of many speculators, futures laws and regulations imperfect, and the development of economic globalization, are the futures investment is facing many uncertain risks. In the choice of investment strategy, more and more investors to take prudent investment strategy, which, a large part of the investors tend to technical analysis. Through technical analysis, traders judge market trends and follow the cyclical changes in the trend to make stock and all financial derivatives trading decisions. In the technical analysis, the average system analysis is the most commonly used in practice is the highest accuracy of the analytical technology, this paper through the copper, rubber, sugar, cotton, zinc, several representative commodity futures to study, to verify the average bonding State of investment strategy choice. First, this paper determines the condition of the bonding state by calculating the distance of different mean points. Then, it is judged whether the reversal of the form is long or short by the comparison of the MA value of the different mean points. Finally, the factory strategy and the factory strategy are determined. And to take more and short after the operation of the proposed stop-loss strategy. The effect of these strategies is very significant, the sum of several commodity futures net profit of 113744.79 yuan, profit and loss ratio of 2.82.

Nanocomposites Based on Thermoplastic Polymers and Functional Nanofiller for Sensor Applications

Thermoplastic polymers like polyolefins, polyesters, polyamide, and styrene polymers are the most representative commodity plastics thanks to their cost-efficient manufacturing processes, excellent thermomechanical properties and their good environmental compatibility, including easy recycling. In the last few decades much effort has been devoted worldwide to extend the applications of such materials by conferring on them new properties through mixing and blending with different additives. In this latter context, nanocomposites have recently offered new exciting possibilities. This review discusses the successful use of nanostructured dispersed substrates in designing new stimuli-responsive nanocomposites; in particular, it provides an updated description of the synthetic routes to prepare nanostructured systems having the typical properties of thermoplastic polymers (continuous matrix), but showing enhanced optical, conductive, and thermal features dependent on the dispersion topology. The controlled nanodispersion of functional labeled clays, noble metal nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes is here evidenced to play a key role in producing hybrid thermoplastic materials that have been used in the design of devices, such as NLO devices, chemiresistors, temperature and deformation sensors.

Representative commodity for five brassica vegetables based on the determination and dissipation of six pesticide residues

A Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe method for determination of thiophanate-methyl, carbendazim, metalaxyl, fluazifop-P-butyl, chlorpyrifos and lambda-cyhalothrin in five brassica vegetables by high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-electron capture detector has been developed. The average recoveries of six pesticides in five brassica vegetables were in the range of 77.4%–117.4% with relative standard deviation of 3.7–10.8%. Residues of thiophanate-methyl, carbendazim, metalaxyl, fluazifop-P-butyl, chlorpyrifos and lambda-cyhalothrin in five brassica vegetables were studied with the developed method for the classification of crop group and selection of representative commodity of five brassica vegetables. Totally 48 open field trials on five brassica vegetables were conducted at two locations in two different seasons. The residue dynamics and final residues of the six pesticides at three preharvest intervals in different vegetables were compared. All six pesticides had the longest half-lives in cabbage (2.1–3.5 days). Residues of carbendazim (sum of thiophanate-methyl and carbendazim), metalaxyl, chlorpyrifos and lambda-cyhalothrin had similar trend in different brassica vegetables. The maximal concentrations of these pesticide residues were found in kale (0.28–10.9 mg kg−1). Fluazifop-P-butyl residues were at low levels in all five brassica vegetables (<0.01–0.03 mg kg−1). Cabbage, red cabbage, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi had no significant difference in all six pesticide residues and could be classified in a subgroup of Head Brassicas. Cabbage should be selected as the representative commodity. Considering the highest residues in kale and its different morphology, kale should not be classified into the subgroup of Head Brassicas.

The Cinderella-Makers: Postwar Adolescent Girl Fiction as Commodity Tales

Postwar/Cold War “commodity tales” were adolescent girl romance novels produced by a powerful female network, and aimed at the teenage girl consumer of the 1940s through 1960s. This paper focuses on two representative commodity tales, Betty Cavanna’s Going on Sixteen (1946), and Mary Stolz’s Rosemary (1955), examining them as Cinderella case studies. Analyzing these texts against Bourdieu’s theories of distinction reveals the magical power embedded in each protagonist’s purchase of a “Right Dress,” while Irigaray’s theory of women as commodities further demonstrates that the “Right Dress” fosters both a female rivalry and a paradoxical alternative to patriarchy.

How do commodity futures respond to macroeconomic news?

This paper investigates the impact of seventeen US macroeconomic announcements on two broad and representative commodity futures indices. Based on a large sample from 1989 to 2005, we show that the daily price response of the CRB and GSCI commodity futures indices to macroeconomic news is state-dependent. During recessions, news about higher (lower) inflation and real activity lead to positive (negative) adjustments of commodity futures prices. In contrast, we find no significant reactions during economic expansions. We attribute this asymmetric response to the state-dependent interpretation of macroeconomic news. Our findings are robust to several alternative business cycle definitions.

Stabilising commodity earnings when there is uncertainty about the price and production distributions

Most of the literature on risk reduction associated with price and production uncertainties has been concerned with the welfare justification for, and welfare consequences of, market stabilisation. This article deals with the important problem of how to stabilise earnings in a market where prices are volatile and production is uncertain, once the welfare case for doing so had been accepted. Based on a sample of four representative commodity markets, the study found significant scope for stabilising earnings by hedging or by price stabilisation.

Replacement-Lock and Dam No. 26: Lock Capacity Procedure and Scope

A systematic procedure integrating all relevant factors leading to a lock’s capacity should be used in determining the practical capacity of any lock on a navigable waterway. These factors should include representative commodity projections, average of maximum tons per lockage, average lockage time, seasonal considerations, and constraints on lock utilization (percent of time lock is in use). By expressing each of these factors on a monthly (i.e., seasonal) basis and then adjusting them over time to account for changes in commodity mix, tow configurations, and technology, it is possible to determine the probable monthly utilization of a lock. Based on queuing models, it was determined that at approximately 90% monthly utilization the practical capacity of a lock is realized. By introducing empirical lock data, many judgmental factors associated with seasonality are eliminated. The process used also shows that lock capacity is not a static condition. Since various factors are constantly in flux, the tonnage capacity varies every month and every year. Because the dynamic nature of the system requires numerous calculations, a computer program written in FORTRAN II was utilized.